Law enforcement agents have been following a clue that the attack on an advisor to the mayor of Kherson, civil activist Kateryna Gandziuk was caused by her active civil stance on exposing officials in the Kherson region involved in illegal cutting of forest trees, the SBU State Security Service has said.
“Officers of the SBU’s Main Investigation Department carried out urgent investigative actions in the criminal proceedings on the premeditated murder of Kateryna Gandziuk. In particular, law enforcement officers have been working on one of the investigative leads regarding the commitment of a crime against the victim in connection with her active public stance on illegal cutting of forest trees in the Kherson region and exposing the officials of the Kherson authorities and local self-government bodies involved in this criminal scheme,” the SBU said in a post on Facebook on Dec. 21.
The SBU said that as part of the pre-trial investigation, law enforcement officers have established that trees had been cut illegally in the territory of Hola Prystan, Oleshky and other districts of the Kherson region “with the assistance of officials of the local authorities and self-governments” for the purpose of selling timber and obtaining illegal profits.
The SBU said mass deforestation cases have been disguised as sanitary cutting of trees damaged by fires so that the timber would be legalized for resale.
“Seven persons involved in the case have already been given notices of suspicion of committing a crime described under Article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” the SBU said.
As earlier reported, on Dec. 3, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that the investigation team had identified all the people who ordered and organized the attack on an advisor to the mayor of Kherson, civil activist Kateryna Gandziuk, which led to her death.
“A notice of suspicion has already been delivered to an assistant to a member of the parliament and I think that we will soon send out a few more notices of suspicion that will finally show the exact people who were involved in ordering, organizing and carrying out that offense,” he said.
Lutsenko said there were “a few dozens of versions” of that crime; however, at present, the investigation team has come to an agreement that they have found the main version. “And we can see the motive – it was Gandziuk’s activities against one of the largest corruption schemes of the local authorities. And all those who ordered that murder, and those who organized it, have been identified by us,” the prosecutor general said.
As was earlier reported, an unidentified person poured concentrated sulfuric acid over Gandziuk in the vicinity of her house in Kherson. The lady suffered severe chemical burns and had to be taken to the local hospital. Soon she was transferred to a hospital in Kyiv.
On Oct. 18, Viacheslav Abroskin, first deputy head of the National Police of Ukraine, reported that the police had detained five people who were suspected in committing the assault on Gandziuk. Two persons were arrested and the other three were placed under 24h house arrest.
On Nov. 5, Gandziuk passed away.
