Ukrainian prosecutors will question ex-President Viktor Yanukovych over his role in the murder of more than 100 protesters during the 2014 EuroMaidan revolution, Prosecutor General’s Office Special Investigations Chief Serhiy Horbatyuk said.
“We’ve got confirmation from the Russian Federation that the questioning is supposed to take place on Nov. 25,” said Horbatyuk in a Nov 19 interview with 112 TV channel.
Vitaliy Serdyuk, Yanukovych’s defense lawyer, told Radio Svoboda on Nov. 16 that his client will be questioned at the end of November via a video link to Rostov-on-Don. Yanukovych has been living in the southern Russian city since he fled the country amid the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
“This will happen so long as the Svyatoshynskiy district court of Kyiv provides all the necessary equipment,” added Serdyuk.
Yanukovych faces questioning as a witness in the case against five Berkut ex-officers Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, Oleksandr Marynchenko, Serhiy Tamtura, and Oleg Yanishevsky. The government accuses the five former officers of shooting 48 EuroMaidan activists on Kyiv’s Instytutska Street in February 2014.
All five have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The suspects remain in pre-trial detention, after a Svyatoshynskiy district court judge ruled in September to prolong their arrest until Nov. 25.
Yanukovych is connected to several investigations connected with the events of EuroMaidan. He himself faces several charges of mass murder and of official misconduct.
President Petro Poroshenko also visited the General Prosecutor’s office on Nov. 18. He was questioned there for six hours as a witness in the investigation of the EuroMaidan activists’ killings, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, Poroshenko’s spokesperson told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Horbatyuk told the 112 TV channel that prosecutors intended to use Poroshenko’s testimony to further their investigation into the killings. Horbatyuk declined to reveal more details.
