6 police officers who shot at unarmed protesters in 2014 to be tried

Under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General’s prosecutors, the State Bureau of Investigation completed the pre-trial investigation and sent to court an indictment against six police officers of a company of the Berkut riot police, who were directly involved in the mass shootings of Euromaidan activists on 20 February 2014.

Source: Office of the Prosecutor General; State Bureau of Investigation; an Ukrainska Pravda source in law enforcement bodies

Details: Ukrainska Pravda stated that these are Dmytro Isakov, Roman Panchenko, Yevhen Pronoza, Yevhen Taranukha, Volodymyr Trepachov and Oleh Shabash.

The investigation established that police officers of the Berkut company, which was subordinate to the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv, used their service smoothbore and automatic firearms, loaded with live ammunition, to shoot the protesters on Instytutska Street in Kyiv on 20 February 2014. As a result, 48 protesters were killed and 90 sustained gunshot wounds.

Subsequently, the muder weapons were stolen, damaged and hidden. Some of them were recovered and identified during the investigation.

As for the other 14 police officers of this unit, who were also involved in the shootings, the State Bureau of Investigation said that the investigation is at the final stage.

The indictment was sent to the court for consideration in absentia, as the defendants are currently hiding in the territory of the aggressor country and have become citizens of the Russian Federation.

A custodial measure of restraint was also imposed on the defendants in absentia.

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