You're reading: Top gang rape suspect’s alibi falls apart

Prosecutors have challenged the alibi of a top suspect in the recent heinous rape case in southern Ukrainian town of Vradiyevka.

The
suspect, police officer Yevhen Dryzhak, was detained on July 2, or
five days after the rape and beating of 29-year-old woman Iryna
Krashkova in Mykolaiv Oblast.

On
July 3, the local court extended his arrest till Aug. 15 after
Vradiyevka district prosecutor challenged an earlier claim that the
man had an overnight shift at the police department when the crime
took place.

Dryzhak
was singled out by the victim as the person who raped her first on
June 26. Two of his alleged accomplices, police officer Dmytro
Polishchiuk and civilian Sergey Ryabinenko were detained on June 28,
and have remained under arrest ever since.

All
three are now suspects in the rape case that has shaken the nation
and caused mass riots and vandalism of the police office in the town
of 8,600 people.

The
victim of the crime remains in the hospital and is recouping from two
emergency brain surgeries and multiple wounds, but she once again
confirmed that Dryzhak was the perpetrator of the crime during a July
2 lineup in the hospital.

On
June 30, Serhiy Mochalko, prosecutor of Vradiivskiy district, said
Dryzhak had a solid alibi because he was on duty overnight at the
police department, and his presence was recorded by the camera.

But
another prosecutor from the same department now admits that he could
have left the police station after all.

“The
camera recorded him at 11 p.m. (on June 26) and then at 6 a.m.,”
said Anatoliy Titus, a Mykolaiv regional department prosecutor, on
July 3. One of Dryzhak’s colleagues turned off the lights for the
time, and the video footage is blank as a result.

“In
theory, Dryzhak could have left the station,” Titus said.

Dryzhak
has other defenders now. Komsomolska Pravda newspaper quoted Yulia
Tkachuk, his alleged girlfriend, as saying that in 1.5 years of their
dating he was never aggressive towards her.

Meanwhile,
Krashkovska’s gang rape has helped to uncover details of another case
in the same town. A 15-year-old girl was raped and murdered in
Vradiyevka in 2011, and her case has remained unsolved.

When
Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko was challenged about the case
during a special parliament hearing on July 2, he said that “the
case was taken under the ministry’s control.”