Besides providing pro bono legal help to EuroMaidan protesters, the movement is starting to guard hospitals to prevent the police from abducting injured demonstrators.
While Kyiv police denied the sanctioning of abductions from hospitals, a group of 15 Afghan War veterans have been guarding Hospital No. 17 since midnight on Jan. 23. This happened after dozens of hired thugs aligned with the government and riot police officers reportedly attacked AutoMaidan activists and damaged four of their vehicles.
Altogether, EuroMaidan SOS, the emergency services branch of the movement, says police have abducted demonstrators receiving treatment at four Kyiv hospitals so far: Oleksandrivska Hospital, First Aid Hospital, and Hospitals No. 12 and No. 17.
In terms of detentions, police say that since the Jan. 19 clashes between protesters and law enforcement started on Khrushevskoho Street, 52 protesters have been detained for breaking the law on riot participation which carries a 15-year sentence. Some 44 have been charged, while 21 have been remanded in custody.
As for abductions, the most high-profile one came on Jan. 21, when two prominent activists were abducted from Oleksandrivska Hospital by nearly 10 young men who were roaming the premises.
Oleksandr Verbytsky, 50, who was seeking treatment from injuries he received in clashes with police, was found dead on Jan. 22 in a forest outside Kyiv. Ihor Lutsenko, the other activist who accompanied him, was also kidnapped and survived the ordeal but not without suffering trauma and physical injuries.
When asked about police being present at hospitals where injured protesters are taken, acting Kyiv police spokesperson Oleksandr Radkevych told the Kyiv Post that “whatever happens every doctor is obliged to report to police on the character of their patient’s injury and the circumstances for their admittance.”
“We don’t detain people just like that…I assure you that the police work within the law at all times…besides people can always file a complaint to the prosecutor’s office if they believe the police did something unlawful,” Radkevych added.
Yet a fight broke out between activists and Berkut riot police on Jan. 22 at the First Aid Hospital to prevent patients from being taken away, according to lawmaker Lesia Orobets. The chief doctor of the first aid clinic where the fight broke out, Oleksandr Tkachenko, said the allegation “isn’t consistent with reality.”
“There were many activists who obstructed the ambulance car to the territory of the hospital as they were looking for injured people who (they thought) Berkut was pulling out of the hospital, but there were no such people …,” he said.
Another incident involved the alleged beating by Berkut police of 15 AutoMaidan activists on Jan. 23 during an ambush. Instead of arranging hospital care for them, they were detained at various police Kyiv departments. Its leader, Dmytro Bulatov, has been missing since the afternoon of Jan. 22. Foul play has been suspected.
Police said that as of 4 p.m. on Jan. 23, they haven’t received any missing person reports concerning Bulatov despite the movement saying they filed one earlier that afternoon.
AutoMaidan has been a particular thorn on the side of authorities. They have sent convoys of cars to the residences of top officials demanding their resignation, including to President Viktor Yanukovych’s palatial estate north of Kyiv. The protest on wheels has evolved to provide surveillance for EuroMaidan by providing security at hospitals and to keep the streets safe from hired thugs that attack protesters.
They’ve frustrated the authorities so much that certain measures in the freedom-quashing legislation that parliament passed in breach of basic procedures on Jan. 16 appear tailor made to neutralize them.
Convoys of five cars or more are banned otherwise violators face up to two years in prison, vehicle impoundment and driver license revocation. The blocking of residences was added to the criminal code and foresees a maximum six-year sentence.
Altogether, Batkivshchyna lawmaker Voldymyr Yavorivsky said that more than 30 AutoMaidan activists are either not in contact with the group, are detained or hospitalized.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected]. Staff writers Anastasiya Forina and Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively.
