The Kyiv Appeals Court released police officer Serhiy Oliynyk, a suspect in the killing of a passenger in a car the officer was pursuing, to house arrest on March 2.
Oliynyk’s case received publicity after he was sentenced to two months in jail while awaiting trial in Pechersk District Court.
Charges against the police officer trigged a rally of 1,000 people on Sofiivska Square in Kyiv on Feb. 21 in support of Oliynyk.
He was arrested on suspicion of the killing of a passenger who was sitting in the back seat of a car being chased by police on the evening of Feb. 7. The police car chased the BMW sports utility vehicle with four passengers after they noticed that the vehicle’s occupants were consuming alcohol and throwing bottles out of the car’s windows.
The driver ignored a police request to pull over. Instead, he started speeding at more than 100 kilometers per hour through the capital, violating numerous traffic rules, the police reported. Police fired warning shots and tried to stop the vehcile. During the incident, a 17-year-old passenger died from a gunshot wound.
The Holosiivskiy District Court triggered outrage by releasing on bail the driver of the BMW, Rostyslav Khrapachevskiy, on March 1.
Khatia Dekanoidze, chief of the National Police, called the decision unjust. She said the officer performed his duties correctly in trying to stop a driver whose actions threatneed other lives.
“Be careful and look around! Now all drunk drivers on the rabid vehicles are confident in their impunity and they will resist the police,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “After all, there will always be the court which released them away.”
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, who was also present during the trial and personally declared that he ready to take responsibility for Oliynyk in support of his bail, said he is unsatisfied with the court rulings that freed the driver while keeping the officer under house arrest.
“Today in the court, we heard that the driver hit a police officer with his car twice and tried to knock down a policeman… and he has freedom while the police officer is under house arrest?” he wrote on his Facebook page after judges adopted the decision against Oliynyk.
President Petro Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem said that the court’s decision is against society’s best interests.
“The processes in the police are a stark contrast to what is happening today with the judiciary and the prosecution authorities,” he wrote on his Facebook page after the court’s decision.
