Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has in recent days arrested a handful of participants from the tax protest held in Kyiv this autumn, the Kyiv Post has learned from sources and police documents obtained.
Four participants of the tax protest were allegedly detained by Kyiv city police in connection with charges that they damaged granite tiles on Kyiv’s main square, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, when setting up tents in November for the weeks-long protests.
We see these investigations and criminal investigations as an attempt by Ukraine’s authorities to see how society reacts, to see if they can get away with arresting more people from the tax protests and scare citizens away from taking part in future protests
According to protest organizers, the individuals, three currently in police custody and one released on Dec. 28 by virtue of a court ruling after being detained on Dec. 25, are charged with damaging the granite tiles on the square when driving metal stakes in to hold up tents. According to police documents obtained by the Kyiv Post, the individuals are charged by Ukraine’s law enforcement authorities with damaging the granite tiles when tent stakes were driven in the rifts between. But protest organizers deny the tiles were damaged and their version of events is backed up by eyewitness accounts of Kyiv Post staff that were present during the protests as reporters. Kyiv Post staff saw protest participants drive in stakes between the tiles without damaging them.
According to police documents, the last names of the three protest participants under investigation by police and allegedly detained are: Harkavenko, Zaplatkin and Gruzinov. A fourth protest participant, Oleksandr Mandych, told the Kyiv Post that he was detained on Dec. 25. But, he added, he was released on Dec. 28 after Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky district court ruled that police had no grounds to keep him in custody as the charges and severity of the alleged crime did not warrant such measures.
Speaking with the Kyiv Post, Mandych described his arrest as follows: “They detained me Saturday 10am. That day, when they had me in custody, one of the police hit me, knocking out one of my teeth. They told me Harkavenko, Zaplatkin and Gruzinov are already in custody.”
Volodymyr Polischuk, spokesperson for the Interior Ministry in Kyiv, could not immediately confirm or deny when contacted by the Kyiv Post that the following individuals were detained.
According to police documents obtained by the Kyiv Post, Serhiy Melnychenko, one of the protest organizers, is also being charged by authorities in connection with the damages that allegedly occurred to the granite tiles on Kyiv’s main square.
Speaking with the Kyiv Post by telephone, Melnychenko said that police also implicated him in connection with several crimes that allegedly occurred during the protests, including blocking of automobile traffic and public disturbances. Melnychenko said he is currently undergoing medical treatment in a hospital and cannot, in accordance to law, be detained.
And it is little surprise that this is all happening around the New Year cause when citizens are busy planning holiday celebrations, when there is less attention. They obviously hope that nobody will notice
Oleksandr Danylyuk, another protest organizer, said the flurry of investigations and criminal charges being waged by Ukrainian authorities against participants and organizers of the tax protests amount to an attempt to “terrorize” activists and society at large.
“We see these investigations and criminal investigations as an attempt by Ukraine’s authorities to see how society reacts, to see if they can get away with arresting more people from the tax protests and scare citizens away from taking part in future protests. This is nonsense and an act of terror from the side of the authorities. And it is little surprise that this is all happening around the New Year cause when citizens are busy planning holiday celebrations, when there is less attention. They obviously hope that nobody will notice,” added Danylyuk, who claims to have been questioned by authorities several times in recent weeks.
Melnychenko and Danylyuk denied that granite tiles were damaged during the protests, saying that eyewitness accounts can corroborate this, and back up that some of the tiles were damaged before the protest were staged. Both also said that damage may have occurred when authorities forcefully tore down the tent city on Dec. 3.
“No damage to the tiles occurred during the protest,” Danylyuk said.
“The tent stakes were driven in between the granite stones, not cracking them. The only damage that may have occurred could have been when the authorities were taking down the tent city. Even after this, we did not see any damage,” Danylyuk added.
