At least a thousand citizens rallied on Sofiivska Square in Kyiv on Feb. 21 in support of the patrol police, as an officer from the new force faces trial for murder.
The event, dubbed “Protect
Your Police,” was held in the wake of to a decision by Pechersk District Court to
jail the officer for two months ahead of his trial.
The officer, Serhiy Oliynyk,
is a suspect in the killing of a passenger who was sitting in the back seat of a
car chased by police on the evening Feb. 7. The police car chased the BMW
sports utility vehicle with four passengers after they noticed that the vehicle’s
occupants were consuming alcohol and throwing bottles out of the car’s windows.
The driver ignored a police
request to pull over. Instead, he started speeding at more than 100 kilometers
per hour through the capital, violating numerous traffic rules, the police
reported. Police fired shots as a warning and also in an attempt to halt the
vehicle. During the incident, a 17-year-old passenger died from a gunshot wound.
Chief of the National Police
Khatia Dekanoidze said after the court’s decision that the police had been
completely open from the very beginning and given all evidence to investigators.
“Our most important achievement is that we’re being open, we’re not hiding anything,”
she said. “But we have to be very careful that this doesn’t turn into an
inquisition for the police.”
Adding controversy to the
case, lawmaker and well-known EuroMaidan Revolution activist Ihor Lutsenko
wrote on Facebook on Feb. 21 that Oliynyk was previously an officer in the
investigations department of the Kyiv Militia – the old, Soviet-era police
force – in the capital’s Obolon district.
Lutsenko claimed Oliynyk had
falsified criminal cases against Automaidan activists who were beaten by Berkut
riot police in January 2014, leading to the activists’ illegal detention and
imprisonment. One of those jailed because of Oliynyk’s activities was activist Denys
Serhiyenko, who spent two months in jail, Lutsenko claimed.
“It was hard to realize that
an abettor of crimes against Maidan activists would get through the selection process
for the widely publicized new patrol police,” Lutsenko wrote.
The rally organizers said on
their own Facebook page that the event was not meant to be in support of
Oliynyk, as investigators has to decide whether his actions had been lawful. However,
it was clear that they also had little faith in Pechersk District Court: “We
object to a court that has repeatedly softened or even withdrawn charges against
criminals, placed former Berkut under house arrest, and repeatedly let corrupt
politicians go,” the organizers wrote, complaining about the court’s refusal to
place Oliynyk only under house arrest.
Private entrepreneur
Mykhailo Guba, one of the organizers of the rally, while attaching stickers
with the slogan “#savepolice” to rally participants’ clothes, told the Kyiv
Post that he had organized the event on Facebook together with friends.
“This is not a political
action. We have no stage, no sponsors, and this is very good. The main task
today is to show everyone – the media, old and new prosecutors, and judges –
that the new police has massive support in the community,” Guba said.
He said that the event was
not an action in support of Oliynyk. “In order not to turn this into a farce,
we fundamentally do not make any claims,” Guba said.
Guba said his only contact
with the new police was when he parked his car under a “no stopping” sign. A
police patrol team approached him and politely asked him to park in another
spot, “without moralizing, without vulgarity, and without extortion,” Guba
said.
Roman Himei was at the rally
in support of the police together with friends who know Oliynyk personally. “I
don’t know (the officer) directly, but for me it’s not this particular tragedy
that’s important, but the case in general,” Himei told the Kyiv Post. He said
this the first occasion he had ever heard of a police car chasing anyone.
“Perhaps the court will work out who’s to blame, but the fact that police
officers took their work seriously for the first time since Ukraine’s
independence is worth gathering for and supporting,” Himei said.
Himei’s friend Olena Havel,
a lawyer who works with Oliynyk, said that she had come to the rally to support
her colleague. She confirmed that Oliynyk had worked as an investigator before joining
the new police force.
“He’s a just man, he always
did everything according to the law,” Havel said. She added that she had also applied
to become an officer in the new force, but failed the physical exam. “I entirely
support (Oliynyk’s) actions,” she added.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliana Romanyshyn can be
reached at [email protected]
