The National Police have opened a criminal investigation into an alleged offer by an activist to pay for information about the police officers who on Feb. 10 beat a group of protesters in Kyiv.
The protesters were demanding a proper investigation into the murder of whistleblower Kateryna Gandziuk, who died in a hospital on Nov. 4 from injuries suffered in an acid attack on her in Kherson on July 31.
Roman Sinitsyn, an activist in the “Who Killed Katya Gandziuk?” Facebook group, mentioned the investigation on Feb. 11.
The police confirmed they were investigating the case on Feb. 12, without specifying Sinitsyn’s name. The police said they were investigating alleged threats against police officers’ lives, although no one has been charged in the case yet.
Sinitsyn argued this was payback for his group’s recent protests over the Gandziuk case in front of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s house in the outskirts of Kyiv, and near his villa in Italy. Interior Ministry Spokesman Artem Shevchenko said that the case involved not just Sinitsyn, but also threatening posts on social networks made by other activists.
Sinitsyn on Feb. 10 posted a photo of a plainclothes police officer kicking a protester lying on the ground.
“Ok guys, no jokes. $500 for this a**hole,” he wrote on Facebook. “Full name, position, home address, family. And $50 for each Berkut officer from the Kyiv regiment who took part there.”
Sinitsyn denied threatening anyone. He also said that the information he was asking for was not personal data protected by the law, and that he had not bought any information so far.
Clashes
The beating took place during clashes between police and activists, including ones from the far-right C14 group, during a campaign event of presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party and its 21-member faction in parliament.
The activists were detained and later released. They subsequently demanded that the police return their belongings, and clashed with officers.
Vasyl Melnykov, the police officer who was photographed kicking a protester lying on the ground, was charged by the State Investigation Bureau with abuse of power on Feb. 11 and arrested by a court on Feb. 12.
The protesters also demanded that the authorities prosecute Vladyslav Manger, the speaker of Kherson Oblast’s legislature and a former member of Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, over Gandziuk’s murder.
In the wake of the protest, Manger was charged on Feb. 11 with organizing Gandziuk’s murder. He denies the accusations.
Other suspects
Alleged mafia boss Oleksiy Moskalenko, who is wanted by Ukrainian authorities, has also been charged with organizing the murder.
Gandziuk’s father Viktor and the “Who Killed Katya Gandziuk?” group have said that Andriy Gordeyev, the governor of Kherson Oblast and a member of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, along with his deputy Yevhen Ryshchuk are also implicated in the crime. Both have denied the accusations.
The police’s slowness to investigate the murder led to speculation that Interior Ministry and police officials and their allies could also be linked to the attack. The Interior Ministry denied the accusations.
Under public pressure, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko in August transferred the case from the police to the Security Service of Ukraine. He said that the attack had been ordered by “law enforcement and state officials, with the help of separatist organizations.”
Local police officers were among the main targets of Gandziuk’s criticism. One of the suspects, Serhiy Torbin, is a former police officer.
Gandziuk accused top police official Artem Antonshchuk of taking a kickbacks and criticized Kirill Stremousov, a pro-Russian top official of the Socialist Party, which is led by Avakov’s ex-aide Ilya Kiva.
Police have arrested five suspected perpetrators of the murder – all former war veterans from nationalist Dmytro Yarosh’s Ukrainian Volunteer Army, an offshoot of the Right Sector group.
The alleged perpetrators have admitted their involvement in the attack.
