The department of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) for the investigation into the crimes committed during mass protests in 2013-2014 in cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (PGO) have served suspicion notices to two former employees of the Berkut riot police department in Kyiv.
The SBI said on May 21 that the former law enforcers are suspected of illegal hindering the arrangement and holding of peaceful gatherings in Kyiv downtown and providing wilfully false information with the aim of generating artificial evidence (Article 340 and Part 2 of Article 384 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
“According to the investigation, in the morning on January 20, 2014, on Lavrska Street in Kyiv, a group of 10-15 ‘titushkos’ [paid-up thugs] detained three participants of Euromaidan, who were returning home from the Independence Square, and handed them over to Berkut. The Berkut officers falsified evidence against the citizens mentioned above, draw up reports and provided wilfully false evidence, saying that those people were allegedly detained on Hrushevskoho Street in Kyiv when they were committing a crime. As a result of the illegal actions, three activists were detained, notified of suspicion and placed in a detention facility for a serious crime, which they never committed,” reads the statement.
