Berkut riot police officers and Gryphon special unit police officers have forced opposition MPs out of the courtroom of Kyiv's Court of Appeals, which had to hold investigatory proceedings on the criminal case on the murder of Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban on Wednesday.
According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, ten MPs, including Oleksandra Kuzhel, Liudmyla Denisova, Serhiy Pashynsky, Yuriy Odarchenko, and Roman Zabzaliuk, were removed from the courtroom.
Two hours after the investigating judge of Kyiv Pechersky District Court, Oksana Tsarevych, announced her ruling to remove everyone except for the participants of the trial and journalists from the courtroom, Gryphon police officers once again asked the people’s deputies to leave the courtroom.
Meanwhile, many Berkut riot police officers have gathered in the court’s corridors.
After another demand to leave the courtroom was again ignored by the MPs, a Gryphon police officer asked the journalists to leave the courtroom to avoid any incidents and injuries. Some journalists apart from cameramen left the courtroom, while the parliamentarians still remained in the courtroom.
Berkut riot police officers entered the courtroom, encircled some MPs and forced them out. The parliamentarians resisted and shouted while scuffling with the police.
As reported, Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court started to hold investigatory proceedings on the criminal case on the murder of Ukrainian parliamentarian Yevhen Scherban in the absence of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is a suspect in the case.
Judge Tsarevych found the ex-premier guilty of contempt of court, which is an administrative offence, and obliged her to pay a penalty of 1,000 nontaxable minimum incomes, which is Hr 17,000 ($2,000).
The judge also drew fined Serhiy Vlasenko, the defense lawyer of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 1,000 nontaxable minimum incomes for contempt of court.
When the judge announced the rulings regarding the imposture of fines on Tymoshenko and Vlasenko, the MPs in the courtroom reacted to it very emotionally.
