The police are conducting an internal investigation into false stories about the killing of Amina Okuyeva, a doctor and Ukrainian Armed Forces lieutenant, National Police head Serhiy Kniazev said, commenting on statements made by the interior minister’s adviser Anton Geraschenko.
“The National Police have begun an internal investigation on the basis of some false stories. Because you spoke of someone’s statement, and we have seen several of them over the course of several days. And we want to get to the bottom of why it is, who it is, and who is interested in it. Perhaps, the criminals themselves are interested in it,” Kniazev said in an interview with Hromadske.ua on November 8, responding to a question as to how he feels about Geraschenko’s statements.
According to earlier reports, Geraschenko said on November 7 that investigators had found the assault rifle used to fire on the car carrying Okuyeva and her husband Adam Osmayev.
“It [the assault rifle] bears traces of the DNA of the person who used it, the killer. These DNA traces have now been handed over to criminal experts, police. They are identifying this DNA and once we have the suspect, we’ll be able to compare them and be absolutely certain whether or not this person is Amina’s killer,” Geraschenko said.
It was reported that Okuyeva was killed and her husband injured after their car was attacked by gunmen near a railroad crossing in the village of Hlevakha in Kyiv region, on the evening of October 30. Osmanov, who was driving the vehicle, suffered a leg injury.
Prosecutors in the Kyiv region have registered a criminal inquiry on charges thus far classified as “contract killing” under the Ukrainian Criminal Code.
At the same time, Mykola Zhukovych, the head of the communications department of the National Police Main Directorate in the Kyiv region, has denied this information. “There is no genetic material on the assault rifle found in the Vasylyivsky district 1.5 kilometers from the accident site,” he said, adding that it is possible that the assault rifle did not belong to the person who killed Okuyeva and ballistic tests in the case are still in progress.
Okuyeva was killed and her husband wounded after their car was attacked by gunmen near a railroad crossing in the village of Hlevakha in Kyiv region, on the evening of October 30. Osmanov, who was driving the vehicle, was wounded in the leg. The Kyiv region’s prosecution service registered a criminal inquiry on charges thus far classified as a contract murder.
