Ukraine’s police released additional video footage on Aug. 4 of a man and woman who are thought to have planted the car bomb which killed journalist Pavel Sheremet on July 20. But there are still several unanswered questions.
The most
pressing question may be the alleged involvement of Vadym Troyan, deputy head
of the National Police, in ordering Sheremet to be followed — an accusation
that police deny. He is on vacation and nable to comment, according to the
Interior Ministry. As of Aug. 5, Troyan has been on holiday for 17 days.
In the
latest footage released by police from several surveillance cameras the
identities of the perpetrators are much clearer. They have tracked their
movements using surveillance footage from 2:13 a.m. until 2: 44 a.m., when they
disappear.
Artem
Shevchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s national police, refused to tell Kyiv
Post how they disappeared: “What difference does it make?”
The pair
both appear to be wearing lose tracksuits and baseball caps to obscure their
faces.
The male
suspect is between 168 and 175 centimeters tall, well-built and practices
weight lifting and has a “so-called Spanish beard,” Shevchenko told press on
Aug. 4.
The female
accomplice who is believed to have placed the bomb under the car, while the man
watched from the other side of the road, is around 5 centimeters shorter.
The police
are asking the public to help identify one witness they believe is key to the
investigation. The witness was walking up Vyacheslav Lypynsky Street towards
Ivana Franko Street at 2:44 a.m.
“He’s
a young guy, about 180 centimetrs tall… He had a black backpack with two
reflective strips. He walked towards the Ivana Franko Street at 2:44 a.m. in
the opposite direction of the suspects,” said Dmytro Golovin, who is
leading the investigation.
Police are
asking anyone with information to come forward (call: 044-279-6600 and
044-271-9732 or 102). Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has offered a reward of Hr
200,000 ($8,000) to anyone with information which aids the investigation.
Surveillance
camera footage is a key part of investigation. Shevchenko cautioned that not
all those in the area were working and some don’t record. At present, said
Golovin, they have footage from more than 150 cameras, amounting to 140
terabytes of footage.
“My
investigators are working day and night,” said Golovin.
The
explosives were not the stationary devices used by the military, said
Shevchenko. Instead, he said, that they were homemade. They are identifying
people who are capable of making such devices, he said.
The
American Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has agreed to assist Ukraine in
the investigation, is determining the compositions of the explosives, said
Shevchenko. About 500 grams of TNT was used.
Shevchenko
also confirmed earlier information that the bomb was remote controlled but
refused to elaborate on how and from what distance it would have been
detonated.
Unanswered
questions
Troyan is under
investigation for illegally surveying Sheremet and his partner Olena Prytula,
founding editor of Ukrainska Pravda, where the journalist was working at the
time of his murder.
However,
Troyan has been “on vacation” since the murder and is unable to comment.
Shevchenko told Kyiv Post that he has no information relating to when Troyan
will return from holiday.
“I do not
know his schedule,” said Shevchenko.
Prytula and
Sheremet had complained they were being watched last autumn and Sheremet had
said he thought his car was being followed in June. Deputy and former editor at
Ukrainska Pravda told Novoye Vremya on July 29 that he also witnessed people
surveying Prytula and Sheremet’s apartment last autumn.
He
said that they reported the surveillance to the Interior Ministry, but received
a strange explanation – that the people they saw were the law enforcers
watching an underground casino in the same building.
“But
if there was an underground casino, why didn’t they just close it down?”
Leshchenko told Novoye Vremya. “Olena is convinced that they were following her
even on the night of the murder.”
Police have also not updated the public on their questioning of journalists
from the pro-Russian Channel 17 who were first on the scene. The journalists said they happened to be at
the location because they were due to interview Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko who
lives nearby. However, later it transpired that Klitschko was not in Ukraine at
the time. The journalists explained that they found out about Klitschko being
overseas when they arrived to his house but still decided to hang around for a
while. The investigation into Channel 17’s presence is still ongoing, according
to Shevchenko.
Kyiv Post staff
writer Isobel Koshiw can be reached at [email protected]
