To whom it may concern.
To People who are Going to Visit Ukraine and to Human Rights Defense Organizations.

We would like to draw attention of all foreign fans, tourists visiting Ukraine as well as human rights organizations of civilized countries. The point of Ukraine proclaiming its independence and democracy of legislation is actually not far from totalitarianism. Security Service of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies of this country are not involved in defense of citizens and state security. They are stuck in corruption and extortion of money. They also get fictitious indexes of work, calling innocent citizens to account as a result of gaps in legislation of the country and imperfection of the law enforcement system in general.

These facts are proved by the cases when both foreigners and Ukrainian citizens were called to account according to the clause 359 of Criminal Code of Ukraine “Illegal purchase, sale or use of special technical data storage devices”. However, there is no list of certain groups of items that can be referred to special technical data storage devices. Also there are no criteria or indications in the laws of Ukraine. The question whether the item belongs to special technical data storage devices or not is to be answered by experts of SSU who use confidential methodic that is of top secret and unavailable for citizens. As a matter of fact, every miniature video and audio recording device, especially if it is built in the wristwatch, pen, Bluetooth, eyeglasses or is simply small-sized, can get under known criteria and indications of special technical device. In practice people are imprisoned for purchasing, distributing or using of audio and video recording device for a term up to seven years. The Turkish citizen was convicted in the same way. He tried to record He tried to record customs officials extorting bribes from him on keychain-camera while crossing the border of Ukraine extorting bribes from him on keychain-camera while crossing the border of Ukraine http://pik.ua/news/url/grazhdanina_turtsii_posadili_na_4_goda_za_skrytuju_semku_raboty_skadovskoj_tamozhni. And for import and export of such goods you will be arrested under clause 201 of Criminal Code of Ukraine called “Smuggling”. An example of such criminal case is described on the forum http://distributed.org.ua/forum/index.php?showtopic=5245, where a person was brought to justice for one attempt to bring Chinese keychain-camera into the territory of Ukraine. Thus in this article we want to inform foreigners coming from countries where such goods are in free circulation about the risk of importation and exportation, purchase, sale and use of such devices on the territory of Ukraine. The law was adopted to preserve the representatives of Ukrainian authority from fixation of their illegal, immoral acts or corrupt practices. It doesn’t protect citizens from violation of their constitutional rights which guarantee inviolability of home and other property; privacy of letters, phone calls, telegraphic and other correspondence; non-interference into private and family life at all.
Constant information scandals connected with illegal video and audio recordings, telephone tapping, surveillance, search, breaking into offices, apartments, means of transportation, unsealing letters and parcels somehow do not give a nudge to our officials that they should better fight against violation of constitutional rights of citizens rather than detect special devices storing secret information, which are obscure to the public. Protests and problems connected with application of this clause were raised by many leading lawyers and journalists who wrote many articles on this subject http://ord-ua.com/2012/03/16/359-stattya-kriminalnogo-kodeksu-ukrayini---tse-nastup-na-glasnist-i-svobodu-slova-sproba-pokraschiti-pokazniki-roboti-sbu-chi-kontrol-rinku-video-ta-audio-tehniki-pravoohorontsyami/ , but authorities do not react to the problems of protection of citizens from arbitrariness of law enforcement agencies.
Law enforcement officers themselves represented by SSU at press conferences cannot explain what the public danger of these items is. And journalists are openly told that if they use in their work such devices which are declared as special technical means they will be brought to justice under clause 359 of Criminal Code of Ukraine. And if devices are not declared as special technical means they will be called to account under clause 182 of CCU for illegal collection of information about a person. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hovkia4Ljyo. Circumstances and cases of such incidents in legal system of Ukraine are described on the sites in detail. With the help of links here above we just want to draw attention of the world community and warn people about the kind of obstacles that can occur while being at the territory of democratic and so-called independent Ukraine.