The man who is suspected of beating journalist and EuroMaidan activist Tetyana Chornovol, who irritated overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych with her investigations, has been granted political asylum in Moscow on Aug. 6, according to reports in Russian media.
The beating, which took
place on Dec. 25, 2013, amid the EuroMaidan Revolution, has
provoked massive outcry worldwide, with Chornovol and her supporters
accusing Yanukovych and his allies of being
behind the crime. Documents uncovered at Yanukovych’s Mezhyhirya estate implicate his security chief in orchestrating the attack.
The Federal Migration
Service’s Moscow branch approved an asylum request filed by one of
those suspected of beating Chornovol, Andrei Zinchenko, making it
impossible for him to be extradited to Ukraine, Izvestiya reported
Aug. 6.
Illarion Vasilyev,
Zinchenko’s lawyer, told the paper that the suspect was released on
Aug. 4 after his detention period expired. He was detained by Moscow
police in February after fleeing to Russia. Ukrainian authorities are
seeking to extradite him.
Zinchenko claims that he
was framed, and that “powerful people” are behind the crime,
Vasilyev said. A friend of Zinchenko’s has taken the blame in
exchange for $25,000 and falsely accused him of being an accomplice,
Vasilyev added.
Chornovol was not immediately available for comment.
Political analyst Vitaly
Bala said by phone
that he doubted the case against Zinchenko had been fabricated,
attributing Russia’s decision to grant him asylum to its conflict
with Ukraine. “A lot of stuff is
being done in order to irritate Ukraine,” he said.
Another five suspects in
the case were arrested in December 2013, but three of them were
released in February.
The beating took place
near Boryspil International Airport outside Kyiv. Chornovol was
attacked by two men after their Porsche Cayenne crashed into her
car. She was then thrown into a roadside ditch.
According to the
investigators, Zinchenko was the Porsche’s driver.
The attack happened after
Chornovol investigated the residences of Interior Minister
Vitaly Zakharchenko and Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, key
Yanukovych associates.
Chornovol has accused
Yanukovych himself of ordering the attack because of her
investigations into a luxury mansion and palace he was building.
Oleksiy Haran, head of the
Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’s Political Analysis School, suggested that
Chornovol’s beating may have been ordered by Yanukovych or his inner circle.
Documents found on the former presidential estate in Mezhyhirya
showed that Chornovol’s moves were tracked, and that Yanukovych’s security guards had a file on the whistle-blowing journalist who was
later appointed to head the government’s anti-corruption body, the
National Anti-Corruption Committee.
In 1996-2001, Chornovol was
an activist of the UNA-UNSO nationalist group.
Oleg Sukhov is a contributing writer at the Kyiv Post.
