Ukrainian anti-corruption activist Oleg Mykhailyk underwent surgery in Munich, Germany on Jan. 11, to remove a bullet from his lung – a vital piece of evidence that could shed a light on who tried to kill him in Odesa, Ukraine’s National Police reported on its website.
Mykhailyk, who was a critic of the local authorities and who previous organized many protests against illegal construction in Odesa, was shot near his house on Sept. 22.
Police arrested three suspects on Sept. 25, but Mykhailyk doubts they were the real attackers.
He went to Germany for an operation to remove the bullet, which was lodged in his lung. He feared that in Ukraine the law enforcement could switch it for another one, which would make impossible to find the gun from which he was actually shot. His trip and surgery are sponsored by the German government.
Earlier Mykhailyk said that his operation was scheduled for Jan. 9, but that it had been postponed because Ukraine’s police and prosecutors had failed to send the papers to their German colleagues allowing them to examine the bullet and submit it as evidence in court.
The police report said that they managed to collect and send all the necessary papers to Germany on Jan. 10.
Ukraine’s police officers also asked through Interpol for their German counterparts to collect the evidence, the report said.
Mykhailyk confirmed on his Facebook page late on Jan. 10 that German police officers had visited him in the clinic and were planning to be present during his surgery at the request of their Ukrainian colleagues.
The activist also said that the German experts offered to perform ballistic forensic tests on the bullet right after the operation. German government offered to pay for these tests as well.
Nevertheless, the German experts cannot conduct the tests without the permission of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office. Mykhailyk publicly called on Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to make this crucial check possible.
“My recent experience shows that only public pressure and an information campaign can force the National Police and Prosecutor General’s office perform their duties,” Mykhailyk wrote on his Facebook page before the operation.
