The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office will close the criminal inquiry against Andriy Medvedko and Denis Polischuk, who are suspected of killing the journalist and commentator Oles Buzyna, if their blood test results do not match the samples taken from the crime scene, according to Olha Koryniak of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.
“If we have exactly those samples confirmed as identical… [if] the genetic profile proves identical to the samples [taken] at the scene, the profile of the blood taken from our suspects… then most likely an indictment against these individuals will be sent to the court. If the tests fail to confirm these facts, the criminal case against these suspects will probably be closed,” the prosecutor said at a briefing in Kyiv on July 29.
One of the defining results for this case to be considered will be precisely the results of the tests being carried out on the blood samples taken from Medvedko and Polischuk “in accordance with the court’s permission,” she said.
“Genetic tests currently continue at the Kyiv scientific research institute of forensic science. The purpose of these tests is to prove, or disprove, that the DNA samples taken from the suspects, Medvedko and Polischuk, are identical to the DNA profiles recovered from the vehicle at the scene,” the prosecutor said.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has also decided to disqualify the head of the group of prosecutors investigating Buzyna’s murder. “The head of the prosecution group, Stanyslav Huschesov, will be barred from the process of leading this criminal inquiry and another head of the legal procedure will be appointed,” Koryniak said.
Earlier on Friday, July 29, activists from nationalist organization staged a protest outside the building of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, during which they poured animal blood on the stairs in sign of protest against persecution of the Buzyna murder suspects, Medvedko and Polischuk. They said they did it so that “prosecution investigators now had enough of biological material to conduct various tests.” The activists thus expressed their protest against the forcible blood tests carried out on Medvedko and Polischuk by law enforcement officers not long ago.
Buzyna was killed in the courtyard of the residential block in which he lived in Kyiv on April 16, 2015.
Medvedko and Polischuk were arrested on June 18. The court remanded them in custody, which was extended several times afterwards. But in late 2015 they were placed under house arrest until their release in the spring of 2016.
The preliminary investigation in the case continues. The suspects have categorically denied any involvement in the murder.
