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One year after Pavel Sheremet’s murder, journalists demand justice (PHOTOS)

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People light up candles on the morning of July 20 near the place where journalist Pavel Sheremet was murdered a year ago, on July 20, 2016.
Photo by Volodymyr Petrov

Some 300 people, most of them Ukrainian journalists and activists, gathered in central Kyiv on July 20 to mark one year since the murder of their colleague Pavel Sheremet.

Sheremet, a prominent Belarusian journalist who had lived in Ukraine, was killed by a car bomb as he was driving to work on the morning of July 20, 2016.

The bomb attached to the bottom of the car detonated on the crossing of Ivana Franka and Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Streets in the very center of Kyiv. Sheremet received severe injuries and died on the spot.

One year later, the murder remains unsolved. The police have no suspects. No arrests were made in connection with the case.

Immediately after the murder, Ukraine’s highest officials, including President Petro Poroshenko, promised to take the investigation under personal control. Poroshenko said that finding the murderers was “a matter of honor.”

In May, a documentary produced by journalists of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Slidstvo.info, “Killing Pavel,” demonstrated that the official investigation had missed key clues and witnesses.

On the anniversary of the murder, Ukrainian journalists, activists, and friends of Sheremet gathered at the scene of the murder and marched across the city center to the President’s Administration and the Interior Ministry headquarters, holding signs reading “Who killed Pavel?”

No one from the President’s Administration came out to speak to the crowd. The Interior Ministry dispatched its spokesman, Artem Shevchenko, to make a statement before the protesters.

A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, released earlier in July, highlights the drawbacks of the investigation.