During a court hearing on Dec. 13, Roman Landik -- on trial for allegedly beating a young woman in an attack caught on videotape -- appeared to have a breakdown and started screaming demands that he be shot since he "cannot take it anymore'. "
Then he lashed out at his victim. "She (Maria Korshunova) is going to the dentist to treat her teeth, and I have eight cavities in my teeth. When will I get treated?"
Korshunova, a 20-year-old woman from Lugansk who used to work as a model, told the Kyiv Post that the July 4 incident changed her life. “I was waiting to hear from two big modeling agencies. But after the whole scandal and all the lies that were spread on the Internet about me, they cut all communication,” Korshunova said, adding that she currently is jobless and “clueless about what to do next in life.” Korshunova said that while she has recovered physically from the assault, she has a lot to cope with emotionally.
“It is very hard psychologically to come to the court hearing every day and listen to all the lies about me and what happened that night. The defendant says that the video is fraud, that I attacked first, that he was only protecting himself. They completely change the sequence of the events," she said. "I think they are trying to drag out the process.”
Landik, the 37-year-old son of a Ukrainian lawmaker, is charged with assaulting Korshunova in a Lugansk restaurant. He has exhibited bad behavior since the assault and charges.
On Dec. 8, Landik attacked a journalist in court. While on his way to the courtroom, Landik hit the camera of 1+1 TV channel with his head. The impact was so strong that the battery fell off and the video record was. According to a statement by 1+1, the station is considering a lawsuit against Landik to recover damages.
The Landik family has reportedly paid the victim of the July 4 assault, 20-year-old Maria Korshunova, Hr 320,000 – some $40,000. But that hasn’t made the criminal charges of disorderly conduct goes again. Landik is held in a Lugansk jail.
He is the son of Volodymyr Landik, an influential member of parliament from the ruling Party of Regions.
The assault touched off a public debate over the impunity with which Ukraine’s rich and powerful behave. Much of Landik’s sustained, 20-minute assault on the woman in the Bakkara restaurant was caught on the business’s surveillance camera.
The surveillance camera footage show how Landik starts an angry conversation with Korshunova and then hits her on the face. After she hits him back, Landik starts beating and dragging her by her hair across the floor.
Landik is claiming in court that he was “trying to detain her for assaulting him.” His father also said that the video footage is fraud and has threatened to sue journalists who run the story.
Korshunova was treated in a hospital for a concussion, damaged vertebra and bruising. She later told 1+1 TV channel that, before beating her, Landik was verbally assaulting her.
After the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against Landik, who was member of Lugansk city council at a time, he fled the country and was soon detained in southern Russian city of Krasnodar. On Aug. 11, he was extradited to Ukraine and since then has been held in a detention center.
Volodymyr Landik, Roman’s father, is not without controversy as well. He went into national spotlight on March 12 when his bodyguard assaulted a traffic police officer after Landik’s car was stopped for speeding.
First Landik denied the incident, then accused the Internal Ministry of conspiring against him. Then he apologized publicly and offered compensation to the police officer.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
