The Deputy Head of the National Police, Vadym Troyan, has been cleared of involvement in illegal surveillance of murdered journalist Pavel Sheremet by the body he heads, according to a letter sent by the police to news website Ukrainska Pravda.
The
findings of the police investigation into Troyan will be passed to Ukraine’s
Prosecutor General’s Office, which has opened an investigation into the
accusations against Troyan.
Sheremet, a
well-known Ukrainska Pravda journalist, was killed by a car bomb in central
Kyiv on July 20.
Sheremet
and his partner, former editor of Ukrainska Pravda, Olena Prytula complained of
being followed twice before he was killed. The first occasion was in autumn
2015, when a lawmaker and friend Sergii Leshchenko called Anton Gerashchenko,
an advisor to the interior minister, to report the suspected surveillance. The
Interior Ministry at the time said they were monitoring the activities of an
illegal casino in Prytula and Sheremet’s building. Leshchenko told Novoye
Vremya that he didn’t understand why the police didn’t simply shutdown the
casino if that were the case.
Sheremet
complained a second time a month before he was killed, when he said his car was
being followed.
Troyan, who
is the responsible for overseeing surveillance at the national police, was “on
vacation” at the time of the murder.
The
whereabouts of Troyan were unknown for 17 days, even, it appears, to the
Interior Ministry. Spokesperson for the National Police Artem Shevchenko on
Aug. 5 Kyiv
Post by phone
that he did not know when Troyan would return from holiday.
“I don’t
know his schedule,” Shevchenko said on Aug 5.
But hours
after Kyiv Post spoke to Shevchenko on Aug. 5, something appears to have jogged
his memory. Shevchenko told Ukrainska Pravda that Troyan had
returned from holiday that week, and on Aug. 4 had even participated in first
anniversary celebrations for the new police force.
On Aug. 6,
the National Police released a
video on its
website in which Troyan discussed the fact that he was under investigation, and
in which he rejected the accusations as “fakes.” In the video, he told the
interviewer “I’m certain that they will be proven to be fakes. It’s easier for
people to accuse a person when he’s on holiday.” However, Troyan did not appear
in public until a press conference relating to internal staff changes on Aug.
12. He has since denied the accusations of being somehow involved in Sheremet’s
murder several times.
The following
is a translation of the letter dated Aug. 15 (26 days after the accusations
were first made) sent to Ukrainska Pravda by the National Police in response to
a request from the news website for information about Troyan’s possible
involvement in the surveillance of its journalists.
Dear Oksana
Volodymyrovna!
The National Police
has looked into your inquiry about information that illegal surveillance was
being carried out by the Deputy Head of the National Police Vadym Troyan on the
heads of the internet publication Ukrainska Pravda, Pavel Sheremet and Olena
Prytula.
We can announce
that the results of the official investigation do not confirm the possible
involvement of first deputy Vadym Troyan in illegally spying on the heads of
the internet publication Ukrainska Pravda Pavel Sheremet and Olena Prytula.
The official
investigation materials have been sent to the General Prosecutor of Ukraine in
accordance with the law.
Sincerely,
The deputy head,
K. V. Bushuyev
Several
other friends of Prytula and Sheremet also said they were under surveillance by police in the
autumn of 2015. In November 2015, Leshchenko was leaked a copy of his flight
records. Fellow lawmaker and activist Svitlana Zhalishchuk said she received a
phone call from Leshchenko’s number, but that the caller was actually an
unknown man who told her that she, along with Leschenko and lawmaker Mustafa
Nayyem, were under surveillance along with unnamed investigative journalists.
Zhalishchuk said she was told the same thing by two female lawmakers from the
People’s Front political party.
Leshchenko
placed the blame on Minister of Interior Arsen Avakov and former head of the
People’s Front faction and lawmaker Mykola Martenynko, who at the time was
facing expulsion due to evidence of his corruption released by Leshchenko.
Avakov is also a senior member of the People’s Front party.
The police
have yet to name any suspects or identify the man and the woman who were
captured on CCTV footage apparently planting a bomb under Prytula’s car.
