The indictment in the criminal case against the ex-deputy chief of the main directorate of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry in Kyiv – the chief of criminal police – was sent to court on Jan. 2, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has said.
The ex-official is accused of organizing actions by so-called goon gangs (titushki) employees and operational police units and Kyiv’s Berkut riot police on the night of Jan. 22-23, 2014 on Schorsa Street in Kyiv near city hospital number 17. The group illegally detained six activists of the AutoMaidan anti-government protest movement, inflicting bodily injuries of varying severity and deliberately damaging their cars.
The activists were taken to the Kyiv’s Darnytsky District police station, where they were accused falsely of committing serious crimes.
The actions of the suspect are qualified under Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 3 of Article 371, Part 2 of Article 372, Article 340 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (organizing, managing the preparation and execution by prior agreement of a group of persons knowingly unlawful detention, organizing the bringing of knowingly innocent persons to criminal responsibility, combined with an accusation of committing an especially grave crime and artificially creating evidence of accusation, unlawfully preventing meetings, rallies, and marches by prior agreement by a group of persons).
“The results of the investigation of this and other similar crimes prove the validity of suspicions about the planned, systemic and coordinated nature of the unlawful response to the protest actions that took place in January and February 2014,” the PGO said.
The PGO said 18 law enforcement officers have been brought to justice for this episode alone, in addition to the ex-deputy Kyiv police chief. They include 13 Berkut riot police officers, including the regiment commander and the company commander, deputy head of the department for combating illegal drugs and eight so-called goons (titushki).
A charge was also brought against the head of the court apparatus for unlawfully interfering in the work of the automated court document management system (entering false information in this system) in the distribution of cases between judges in electing detainees for preventive measures.
