The head of Kherson Oblast Council, Vladislav Manger, is a suspect in the murder of Ukrainian activist Kateryna Gandziuk, Ukrainian General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko announced on Facebook on Feb. 11.
“Citizen Vladislav Manger is a suspect in organizing the murder of Kateryna Gandziuk,” Lutsenko wrote. The post included a scan of the notice of suspicion served to Manger.
Gandziuk, a whistleblowing Kherson municipal official who worked as an adviser to the mayor of Kherson, died in hospital on Nov. 4, months after an acid attack on her on July 31 in the southern Ukrainian city. The attack left her with serious burns on 40 percent of her body, and severe eye damage.
Oleksandr Vlasov, a councilor on Dnieper District Council in the city of Kherson, also announced the serving of a notice of suspicion to Manger, but with a few more details. He said Manger’s home was being searched by officers from Ukraine’s SBU security service.
In addition, he said that Evgeniy Ryshchuk, the deputy of the head of Kherson Regional State Administration, had been temporarily removed from his position in connection with the same case.
And according to Vlasov, the Presidential Administration has “washed its hands” of Manger due to the strength of evidence of the Kherson Oblast council head’s involvement in the murder.
Ryshchuk, writing on Facebook on Feb. 11, denied that he was involved in the murder.
“Thank God I have nothing to hide, and I could go through a lie-detector test,” he wrote.
A couple days earlier, on Feb. 8, Manger was expelled from the Batkivschyna party, headed by Ukrainian politician and presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko. The party also advised Manger to resign as head of Kherson Regional State Administration.
Larisa Sargan, the spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General’s Office, told the Kyiv Post that Manger had not yet been arrested but was in the presence of investigators. She also said that he would appear before Pechersky District Court in Kyiv, and that he would be kept in custody in the capital.
According to online news agency Most, which was founded by Gandziuk in 2012, Kherson Regional State Administration told it on Feb. 11 that Manger earlier took official leave until March 30.
