The appellate court began a retrial of the Handzyuk case

The Kyiv Court of Appeals has restarted consideration of the case of the attack on Kherson activist Kateryna Handzyuk.

The lawyer of the ex-chairman of the Kherson Regional Council (Vladyslav Manger, who is accused in the case) Oleksandr Shadrin said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

"There was a replacement of a judge [in the collegium] due to the fact that one of the judges resigned. Accordingly, consideration of the case began anew. At the meeting, the additions to the appeals were [presented], and the victims took a half-hour break to familiarize themselves with these additions," Shadrin noted.

On the website of the Kyiv Court of Appeals, it is indicated that judge Oleksandr Mykolyuk was replaced by judge Valentyn Shrol in the collegium. In addition to Shrol, this case is being considered by two other judges — Oksana Rudnichenko and Olena Svintsytska.

"The chairman reported the essence of the appeals, the essence of the objections of the participants. Lawyer [of Manger] Dmytro Ilchenko has begun the explanation of his appeal," Shadrin noted.

Activists are concerned that the case has been re-examined, because they believe that the trial may be delayed. The organizers of the project "Who ordered Katya Handzyuk" explained that 6 out of 10 years have passed since the crime was committed, within which criminal prosecution is possible.

The case of Kateryna Handzyuk

Public activist Kateryna Handzyuk died in a Kyiv hospital on November 4, 2018, three months before that she was doused with sulfuric acid in Kherson. The perpetrators of the crime — former soldiers of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army Viktor Horbunov, Vyacheslav Vyshnevskyi, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Mykyta Hrabchuk and the organizer of the attack Serhii Torbin — pleaded guilty, entered into a deal with the investigation and received from 3 to 6.5 years of imprisonment.

On June 25, 2020, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office completed the investigation into the murder of Handzyuk.

In October 2020, Ihor Pavlovskyi, who is considered an intermediary between those who ordered and executed the murder, was found guilty of concealing the facts regarding the attack on Handzyuk and sentenced to a suspended sentence.

In June 2023, the court found Vladyslav Munger guilty of ordering the attack, and his assistant Oleksiy Levin — of the organization, for which they were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. Their lawyers filed appeals.