Dozens of activist, lawmakers and soldiers of the Aidar, Azov and Donbas volunteer battalions blocked the Kreshchatyk Street next to the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv on July 2. They protested against the detention order to Valentyn Lykholit, the founder and ex-commander of the volunteer Aidar Battalion, from two months of pretrial detention on charges of robbery.
Lykholit, who is suspected by the military prosecutor’s office of forming a gang of 10 Aidar servicemen that robbed the estate of mayor of Severodonetsk in July 2014, kidnapping three people and blackmail, was released from jail by an appeals court decision after the protests.
Samopomich Party lawmakers Yegor Sobolev and Semen Semenchenko as well as Radical Party lawmakers Andriy Lozovyi and Ihor Mosiychuk took part in the protest.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko took Lykholit’s case under his personal control.
Khatia Dekanoidze, the chief of the National Police of Ukraine, returned from Kherson Oblast to attend the protest.
Kyiv Post staff writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]
