by James Tweedie

THE Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) has condemned the jailing of newspaper editor Alexander Bondarchuk as “another crime of the Kiev regime.”

It said on Tuesday that Working Class editor-in-chief Mr Bondarchuk was being illegally detained by police beyond Ukraine’s 60-day limit.

Mr Bondarchuk is also a former MP and a leader of the Labour Ukraine party, which was an anti-fascist member of the 40-seat bloc that opposed the pre-coup Euromaidan protests.

He was first arrested on March 17 and charged with actions aimed at illegally changing the borders or territory of Ukraine — so-called separatism — a charge commonly laid against opponents of the post-coup Kiev regime.

After the Prosecutor’s Office failed in its application for an extension of Mr Bondarchuk’s detention, which expired on May 15, his lawyers petitioned the detention centre for his release.

But officials refused to free the editor, claiming that they had a court order extending his detention. When challenged by Mr Bondarchuk’s lawyers to produce it, they refused.

Mr Bondarchuk’s legal team then lodged a complaint with the court against his continued imprisonment.

On May 17 they were presented with the court order, dated May 14, granting an extension to Mr Bondarchuk’s detention. The decision had been made secretly, without any opportunity for Mr Bondarchuk’s lawyers to attend — contrary to Ukrainian law.The KPU said in a statement: “This demonstrates that the criminal Kiev regime continues to practise political repression and persecution of political opponents.”