Crimean police apologize to Crimean Tatar Mustafa Khaimov, injured by police in attack on his house

Feb 23, 2009 at 12:05 | Interfax-Ukraine
Simferopol – The leadership of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's main office in Crimea has presented its apologizes to Mustafa Khairov, a resident of the village of Myrne in Simferopol district, who was injured in a stun grenade attack by Berkut special police on his house. Apologizes have been also presented to his family.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry's main office in Crimea and the Crimean prosecutor's office are conducting respective checks on this issue and the activities the participants in this attack will be legally assessed after the checks are completed, the media liaisons department of the police main committee in Crimea reported on Monday.

The police main committee's statement reads that a special operation was held in the village of Myrne due to the fact that a district police inspector in Simferopol district, who services this village, was informed at about midnight on February 21 that an individual wanted for committing a number of felonies was living in one of the village's houses.

The document reads that on February 15, 2009, a previously convicted criminal, born in 1960, kidnapped the 23-year-old daughter of his former roommate, threatening her with a hunting rifle, abducted her in a Volkswagen Passat car in an unknown direction, and then demanded a ransom from her mother for her daughter's release.

The police then started actively searching for the kidnapper and his hostage. The car used to seize the woman was discovered in Simferopol on February 17. Police officers checked the possible residence of the lawbreaker and inspected the area of land plots seized voluntarily outside the village of Myrne and Marshall Zhukov Street in Simferopol.

Two residents of the village, who personally knew the suspect, told the police that they saw him and at one of the local houses at 2300 on February 21 and said they were ready to provide the address.

Based on the reports available to the police and given that the criminal had a gun, a special police group was called to arrest him.

"The special group threw a stun grenade into an empty room during its operation to disorient the criminal at 0100 on February 22. The master of the house, born in 1950, tried to throw the special device outside. The wanted criminal was not found in the house or in the nearby area," reads the document.

"The leadership of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's main office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea presents its apologizes to the injured man and his family," reads the statement by the police main committee in Crimea.

As reported, the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people has demanded that the Prosecutor General's Office immediately investigate an attack made by soldiers of the Berkut special police force on the residence of the Khairov family in the village of Myrne, Simferopol district, resulting in an arm injury to the master of the house, Mustafa Khairov.