A/HRC/41/CRP.2 the 59 guilty verdicts judged under regular criminal proceedings, the defendant pleaded guilty or entered into plea bargain agreements. 58. OHCHR notes with concern the lack of a uniform approach to the qualification of conflict-related crimes.62 Prosecutors take advantage of this practice to draw defendants into pleading guilty by charging them under articles carrying lower sentences if they cooperate. 63 Another related issue is the loose interpretation of article 258 (3) and 258 (5) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which criminalizes, inter alia, “any support to the creation or activity of a terrorist group or terrorist organisation” and “financing terrorism”. OHCHR monitored four such cases and found reasonable grounds to believe that a broad interpretation of support to the activity of the armed group was adopted specifically to allow for the detention in custody of the defendant(s) under article 176.5 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. 59. During the reporting period, OHCHR continued to document the persistent practice of prolonged, automatically ordered and extended pre-trial detention of defendants in conflict-related criminal cases. OHCHR notes that in the majority of cases observed,64 the prosecution, which is obliged to prove before the court specific risks that necessitate pre-trial detention due to individual circumstances, failed to provide any evidence, but only quoted the law and the alleged existence of such risks. 60. OHCHR continued to monitor unduly delayed criminal cases, in which defendants have been held in custody for more than three years. In another 34 documented cases, the defendants have already spent more than four years in custody. As in previous reporting periods, OHCHR notes that prolonged pre-trial detention continues to be used as a means of pressure to force defendants to plead guilty. 61. OHCHR is concerned that one of the reasons for protracted trials is the insufficient number of judges in trial courts.65 All 29 local courts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are 47 62 63 64 65 18 Ukrainian courts convicted defendants for participation in the military formations of armed groups alternatively under articles 258-3, 260 or 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Each of the referenced criminal rules provides for penalties of varying severity. Crimes falling under paragraph 1, article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are punishable by eight to 15 years of imprisonment. Crimes under paragraph 2, article 260 and paragraph 2, article 110 of the Criminal Code are publishable by from three to eight and from five to 10 years of imprisonment respectively. OHCHR trial monitoring. The lack of judges is caused by the lengthy obligatory qualification evaluation of active judges, carried out in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On ensuring the right to a fair trial” of 12 February 2015. Many judges refused to undergo the evaluation and preferred to resign. The judges who have not undergone the evaluation but have arrived at the end of their 5-year initial appointment are not authorised to render justice.