One of the three men suspected in the gang rape, stranglehold and burning of 18-year-old Oksana Makar that led to her death in March has changed his testimony in court to say he had tried saving her life, and that he was offered money to take the blame for the crime, reported the Segodnya newspaper on Aug. 29.
The 80,000 circulation newspaper reported
that Yevhen Krasnoschek, 23, changed his original video- recorded testimony to
say he intentionally didn’t choke Makar to death so that the other two suspects
– Maksym Prisyazhnyuk, 24, and Artem Pogosyan, 22 – would think she was dead,
thus actually saving her life.
Then, according to the Segodnya report,
later in the day on Aug. 29 Krasnoschek denied choking Makar, and instead said
Prisyazhnyuk did the choking – using a telephone cord – and that he was offered
money to take the blame for everything and that Prisyazhnyuk’s lawyer would arrange
for him to avoid punishment.
Prisyazhnyuk is the son of the former head
of the Yelanets District Administration in Mykolayiv Oblast.
Makar died in a Mykolayiv hospital on March
29, located in southern Ukraine.
The court has already examined the
video-recorded questioning of Pogosyan and Pryisyazhnyuk, and on Aug. 28
examined the recorded scene of the crime in which Krasnoschek was shown
narrating what had happened on March 9, the night Makar suffered the heinous
crime.
All three could face a maximum life sentence. They were arrested on March 10 but two were
quickly released. After a public outcry, both suspects were re-arrested on March 13.
The crime happened on International Women’s Day, one of the more revered
holidays in Ukraine.
On Aug. 30, the trial will resume to examine the investigative video
questioning of Krasnoschek.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached [email protected].
