Roman Landik, an ex-member of the Luhansk City Council caught on videotape last month assaulting a woman in a restaurant, is still held at a detention center in Russia’s Krasnodar region, local officials told the Kyiv Post.
“At the moment, Ukrainian citizen Roman Volodymyrovych Landik, born in 1974, is in detention center No. 1 at the Krasnodar region’s district of the Federal Detention Service, in the city of Krasnodar,” the center’s spokesperson Andrey Adamov told the Kyiv Post.
But hours earlier, other Russian officials quoted by Ukraine’s obozrevatel.com news website said Landik is no longer being held in detention awaiting extradition to Ukraine.
“Ukrainian law enforcement officers took him away,” the news site quoted a police representative at the Russian detention center as saying.
The confusing accounts of Landik’s whereabouts fueled speculation in Ukrainian media that he could have either been let out of prison, or that he was on the verge of being extradited back home to Ukraine to face charges.
Earlier, deputy Ukrainian prosecutor general Rinat Kuzmin said that Landik would remain in custody until he is extradited back to Ukraine.
Landik was detained not far from Krasnodar in Russia days after his July 4 beating of a woman in Luhansk and was put in custody. But he appealed an order by Ukrainian authorities to have him extradited back home to face criminal charges related to the incident.
On July 20, the Krasnodar Court of Russia ruled that Landik should be extradited to Ukraine to face the charges.
In the July 4 incident, Roman Landik – a 37-year-old then-Luhansk city council member and recently married son of a pro-presidential Party of Regions parliamentarian – is seen pummeling 20-year-old Maria Korshunova.
The injured woman, aged 20, was hospitalized with brain concussion, damaged vertebrae and bruises. A video of the brutal beating sparked anger and protest.
Faced with mounting criticism from media and activists who cited the incident as the most recent example of impunity for well-connected individuals in Ukraine, prosecutors launched a criminal case days after the beating incident.
But Landik had, during the days that passed, allegedly fled to Russia.
Roman Landik is the son of Volodymyr Landyk, a member of the Party of Regions’ faction at Ukraine’s parliament.
Amidst a wave of criticism sparked by the incident, Landik was expelled from the pro-presidential Regions Party and from the party’s faction in Luhansk council.
Should the younger Landik face trial, he could become one of the first children of Ukraine’s influential politicians and businessmen to be held accountable for their actions.
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