You're reading: Prosecutor dismissed after covering for suspect of gang rape gets new post

A week after a savage gang rape sparked riots in a southern Ukrainian town, its district prosecutor, Serhiy Mochalko, who was dismissed for hampering the investigation of the crime, has been given a new job as prosecutor of a neighboring district, the prosecutor’s office press service said. 

On June 27,
Iryna Krashkova, 29, was brought to a Vradiyivka hospital in Mykolayiv region
with severe wounds, claiming she had been raped, beaten and robbed by two local
police officers, Yevhan Dryzhak and Dmytro Polishchuk, and a civilian, Sergiy
Ryabinenko, who assisted them. Soon after, the police arrested Polishchuk and
Riabinenko, but did not arrest Dryzhak, whom they said had an alibi. 

Residents
of Vradiyivka, believing the alibi to be a farce, stormed the local police
office on July 2, after the prosecutor, Mochalko, told local media that Dryzhak
was on duty at the police station at the time of the crime and that video
recorded by surveillance cameras could prove this.

Iryna Krashkova at the hospital

The next
day, another prosecutor refuted Dryzhak’s alibi, saying the video footage was
blank, and Mochalko had been sacked together with the town’s prosecutor and top
policemen.

But on July
11, Natalia Abramova, head of the Mykolayiv Prosecution press service, said
that Mochalko had been transferred to the prosecutor’s office of neighboring
Kryvozersky district as an ordinary officer, Ukrinform state news agency
reported. 

The
Kryvozersky district prosecutor’s office had denied the transfer of Mochalko
earlier, after opposition lawmaker Andriy Parubiy, who has been closely watching
the case, brought the information to light on July 10.

Parubiy believes
that others who allegedly covered for Dryzhak, who has been connected to
high-ranking Mykolaiv regional authorities, should also be held responsible.

“The
problem here is not only in the crime itself, but in the fact that the
criminals have been covered for,” Parubiy told the Kyiv Post.

Parubiy added
that he was worried the villagers involved in the protests could face retaliation,
due to the fact that many of them have since been called on to the police
office as witnesses in a probe opened after clashes in the town between them
and the police.

“It’s
obvious that the witness could be easily transformed into a suspect,” he said.

Earlier the
officials assured the public that no one would be punished for participating in
the protests.

Additionally, on July 12, Minister of Interior Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko
sacked nine police officers, including Mykolayiv regional Police Chief Valentyn
Parseniuk, his deputy and the head of the police staffing department, as a
result of an internal investigation into the Vradiyivka gang rape.

Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]