You're reading: Lawyers: Breakthrough in Maidan killings case ‘a PR stunt’ by prosecutors

A recent claim by prosecutors of a breakthrough in criminal cases into the murder of more than 100 EuroMaidan protesters has been dismissed by critics as a publicity stunt.

The Prosecutor General’s Office and Security Service of Ukraine on Feb.
6 announced they had found fragments from some of the 23 guns used to shoot
EuroMaidan demonstrators in February 2014.

The timing of the announcement was odd, since the weapon parts were
found last August, and law enforcement agencies had been examining them since
then.

Critics say the announcement was intended to
hide a lack of progress in any investigations against disgraced ex-President Viktor
Yanukovych and his allies, and to save Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who is
facing a growing drive to fire him.

“This is very cheap PR,” Vitaly Tytych, a lawyer for EuroMaidan
protesters, told the Kyiv Post. “This episode has nothing to do with the
investigation itself.”

Though the guns may help link the victims killed by bullets fired from
the weapons to specific murderers, they hardly constitute a breakthrough in the
investigation, Tytych said.

Yevhenia Zakrevska, another lawyer for EuroMaidan
demonstrators, told the Kyiv Post that law enforcement agencies’ actions were
unprofessional, since divulging the information could damage the investigation.

“Instead of further meticulous work, they ran to their leaders and the president and leaked the information to the press,” she
said. “Obviously the desire to curry favor and score political points prevails
over common sense and the interests of investigation.”

Shokin’s opponents also argue that the announcement was timed to coincide with
the approaching anniversary of Yanukovych’s ouster on Feb. 22, 2014.

The day after the announcement about the weapons, Shokin told Inter
television that the investigation into Yanukovych’s alleged participation in
the killing of EuroMaidan protesters had been completed.

“The investigation against (Yanukovych) has effectively been completed,”
Shokin said. “It’s clear that he was in charge of this process through his
henchmen – he supervised everything, including the murders on the Maidan.”

Shokin also said he hoped Yanukovych would be extradited to the country
after Russia’s war against Ukraine is over.

But Tytych said that he did not know what Shokin meant when talking
about the completion of the case.

“What Shokin uncovered is a secret for me,” he said, adding that he was
not aware of any new evidence that could justify such a statement.

Shokin’s announcement follows two years of alleged sabotage of the
investigations by law enforcement agencies, which have denied the accusations.

So far only two people accused of crimes against EuroMaidan
demonstrators – pro-Yanukovych thugs – have been convicted. However, they have
already been released from custody.

Cases against seven people suspected of assaulting or killing protesters
have been submitted to court, but most of the suspects – including those
accused of organizing the crimes – have fled Ukraine and are not currently on
trial.

Prosecutors have argued that they cannot try Yanukovych and some of his
top allies in absentia because Interpol has refused to issue wanted notices for
those suspected of crimes against EuroMaidan demonstrators.

However, Tytych attributed Interpol’s refusal to put them on a wanted
list to Ukrainian prosecutors’ failure to properly investigate the cases and
provide sufficient justification.

Lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters have also accused the Prosecutor
General’s Office of failing to include existing evidence in an effort to derail
investigations, understaffing the department in charge of the cases, and not
allocating enough computers, cameras, desks and working space for its
investigators.

The department has just 18 investigators, but it needs a total of 200,
according to the prosecutor office’s own standards, Tytych said.

Serhiy Horbatiuk, the head of the department, and lawyers of EuroMaidan protesters have
also argued that the Interior Ministry has been covering up for police officers
accused of crimes during the EuroMaidan Revolution. They said that the ministry
has failed to fire many officers suspected of crimes, has prevented them from
testifying, and has hidden evidence.

“Shokin, the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office and (Interior
Minister Arsen) Avakov are committing a crime by blocking the investigation,”
Tytych said.

Corruption investigations against Yanukovych and his associates also appear
to be being blocked – not a single graft case against them has been submitted
to court.

In one case, the Nashi Hroshi investigative journalism project reported
on Feb. 8 that Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court ordered the Prosecutor General’s Office
last month to close an embezzlement case against Yury Ivanyushchenko, a
Yanukovych ally.

The court argued that prosecutors had not taken any action to prove the
suspect’s guilt. The Prosecutor General’s Office said it would appeal the decision, though Nashi Hroshi reported the decision is not subject to appeal.

Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk, a long-time friend of
Shokin, was responsible for the case.

Meanwhile, Oleh Nedava, a Verkhovna Rada member from
the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, used to be an executive for Karpatybudinvest, the
company involved in the embezzlement case, and several other firms linked to
Ivanyushchenko.

Nedava did not immediately reply to a request for
comment.

Serhiy Leshchenko, a lawmaker from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc , said
Ivanyushchenko was working to remove the European sanctions imposed on him and
other associates of the ousted president, and that he was getting help from prosecutors
and the Poroshenko administration.

“This is not the first attempt by Ivanyushchenko, in collusion with
Bankova Street (the Presidential Administration) and the leadership of the
Prosecutor General’s Office, to lift European sanctions,” Leshchenko wrote on
Facebook on Feb. 8.

As the criminal cases against Yanykovych and his associates disintegrate,
criticism of Shokin is intensifying – although President Petro Poroshenko has
stubbornly refused to fire him.

Ex-Economic Development Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, who quit last
week, said that the dismissal of Shokin had been one of his pre-conditions for
keeping the job. Abromavicius resigned after accusing lawmaker Ihor Kononenko,
a Poroshenko ally, of corruption.

Leshchenko said on Feb. 6 that the Prosecutor General’s Office had set
up a new “anti-corruption” department “in an effort to help Kononenko achieve
his political goals.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko said in a Feb. 6
interview that Shokin was responsible for stalled investigations against
Yanukovych and his allies and the failure of prosecutorial reform, which
envisaged recruiting new prosecutors in a transparent hiring process.

Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected]