You're reading: Ten protesters sent to prison, dozen missing as street protests enter third week

As protesters rally into the third week, none of their stated goals has been achieved. 

President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Mykola Azarov’s
government have refused to resign. Meanwhile, on Dec.3 parliament failed to
dismiss the government. Only 186 lawmakers voted on a no-confidence bill out of a required
226. Among the
police – accused of using excessive and indiscriminate force against protesters
and journalists on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 – only one resignation has followed but
was accepted by the interior minister. 

In the meantime, at least 15 rally participants in Kyiv have been reportedly missing. Nine from the Dec.1
rally in front of the Presidential Administration, including one journalist,
and one protester detained near the monument to Vladimir Lenin were
incarcerated for two months.

Six in addition remain hospitalized after being
bitterly beaten by the police. One of them Vladyslav Zagorulko received serious
trauma to the eyes and risks losing his vision if he stays in a police
detention center, Pavlo Petrenko, lawmaker of Batkivshchyna party said.

As of Dec.5 the EuroMaidan SOS community of Ukrainian
students and activists posted a list of missing protesters. The Kyiv Post contacted some of their family members and confirmed
that the whereabouts of at least five from the list are still not known. Yuriy Udartsov, deputy prosecutor general, said
that a criminal probe was launched to search for them.

The ten protesters, six of whom are hospitalized, and
four of whom are in pre-trial detention, face up to 8 years in jail on
suspicion of organizing mass riots.

At large is Dmytro Korchynsky, the leader of the
radical Bratstvo group, who as of Dec. 5 is wanted for allegedly orchestrating
clashes with police on Dec. 1.

“We cannot allow people with knives and fighting
chains walk along streets and crash state institutions,” Bezkyshny told members
of the parliamentary human rights committee on Dec. 5.   

However, video footage shows riot police on Dec. 1
brutally beating protesters and journalists near the Presidential
Administration. Meanwhile relatives of the detained say they have recognized
their family members on various videos post online. Moreover, law enforcement agencies have received
26 reports from journalists injured during incidents on Dec. 1, the
interior
ministry reported.

“On one of the videos I recognized Mykola. He was
lying on the pavement while Berkut police officers were kicking him. They asked
him how much money he could give and then took away his wallet,” said Yana
Stepanenko, girlfriend of detained 23-year old architect Mykola Lazarevsky,
mopping tears from her eyes at a press-conference in Kyiv on Dec.4 that brought
together relatives of some of the detained.  

Mykola Lazarevsky and his girlfriend Yana Stepanenko (courtesy)

According to her, Lazarevsky is wrongly accused of
riding a front-end loader that was used on Dec.1 by demonstrators to smash down
the fence near Presidential Administration’s building and
injured several police officers, according to the interior ministry. The driver
of the machine wore a red blazer while Lazarevsky had on a black one that day,
she said.  

Valeriy Harahuts, journalist and founder of “Litsa”
(Faces) newspaper was also among those beaten and detained on Dec.1. Oleksandr
Miroshnychenko, Harahuts’s lawyer who is representing him in court, said he is
outraged with the case.

“They are accusing Harahuts in order to hide the
riotous behavior of police officers,” Miroshnychenko said. “He was beaten and
tortured while carrying out his job responsibilities. This can’t be left
without attention.”

The Ukrainian branch of of
Amnesty International, one of the world’s biggest human rights organizations,
has asked Ukrainian authorities to carry out independent investigations into
allegations of disproportionate use of force by Berkut riot police officers in
Kyiv on Dec.1.  “We are urging Ukrainian
authorities to solve this issue in legal contemplation, not in a political
one,” Tetyana Mazur, director of Amnesty International in Ukraine said.

Udartsov, the prosecutor said that two criminal cases
were opened against two Berkut policemen for abuse of authority.

On Dec. 5, the opposition member of parliament filed a
bill aimed to liquidate the Berkut police, Batkivshchyna party leader Arseniy
Yatseniuk said. “The perspectives of new draft law are high if the rallies on
Maidan go on,” he added.

Kyiv Post
staff writers Anastasia Forina and Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at
[email protected] and [email protected]

Kyiv post
staff writer Vlad Lavrov contributed to this story.