Ukrainian citizens suspected in a series of explosions in Dnipropetrovsk in April 2012 pursued a goal to frustrate the hosting of the Euro 2012 European football championship in Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported.
“Members of the terrorist group said at once what their goals were.
First of all, they did not agree with the social and political regime in
Ukraine. They wanted to cause chaos and provoke protests of the public
against authorities. They also insist that their goal was to frustrate
the hosting of Euro 2012 in Ukraine,” the head of the group on the
investigation into explosions in Dnipropetrovsk, Vitaliy Mayakov said on
the Shuster Live talk show late on Friday.
He said that their declarations are stipulated in the examination minutes.
He also said that the pre-trial investigation has been finished.
“The suspects have studied the criminal case. These are 73 volumes
and over 200 disks with video and audio records. Now the prosecution and
defenders are finishing studying the case,” he said.
SBU said that next week the indictment will be finished (over 500
pages) and the case will be sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
On April 27, 2012, four explosions occurred in a one-hour span in
Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 31 people, including 10 teenagers, 26 victims
were hospitalized. All the explosive devices were planted in concrete
trash containers.
SBU investigators are probing the criminal case opened by prosecutors on terror charges.
On May 31, senior officials in the Interior Ministry and the
Prosecutor General’s Office stated that two suspects had been arrested
for allegedly demanding $4.5 million, otherwise they threatened to
continue the explosions. It emerged on June 1 that four people were
arrested. All of them have been remanded in custody by the court while
the investigation is ongoing.
It was found later that one of them, Viktor Sukachov, is a senior
political science professor at the National University of
Dnipropetrovsk, and the second one, Vitaliy Fedoriak, is an assistant
professor of political science.
SBU also suspects the two in a case on the organization of another
three explosions in Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk in 2011.
