Military Prosecutor’s Office Gives Detailed Reasons for Arresting Aidar Leaders

The Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office published the testimonies that were grounds for the initial court decision to choose detainment as a pretrial restriction measure for Aidar commander Valentyn Lykholit, call sign Batia. The testimonies also mention another Aidar fighter Roman Radchenko, call sign Rubizh, who was arrested on July 1.

"The pretrial restriction measure was chosen based on evidence received during the court hearings in other cases, regarding the events of not only 2014, but also 2015," the message posted on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on July 2 says.

For instance, ‘Suspect 1’ said that after the houses of Sievierodonetsk mayor and his two deputies were raided between July 30 and August 1, 2014 on Batia’s orders, the seized money and valuables were divided between the Aidar fighters who participated in the raid, and ‘Batia’ received as much as the others.

‘Witness 6’ said that ‘Batia’ suggested he kill two Aidar battalion fighters in exchange for help with acquiring Ukrainian citizenship. And ‘Victim 11’ said that ‘Batia’ was on the phone with him when his house was raided. He said that if ‘Victim 11’ wanted his Lexus RX 450 back, he needed to come to the Aidar base. Later on, they also discussed the return of hunting weapons and documents that were seized during the raid in exchange for financing the parliamentary election campaign of ‘Batia’ in 2014.

The court initially decided to jail Lykholit for two months prior to the main hearing in his case. Activists prevented his transfer from the courtroom after fighting between them and law enforcement broke out. Later Kyiv City Court of Appeals allowed MPs to provide written assurances for his bail.

Source: Ukrayinska Pravda