Six former policemen of the capitalʼs "Berkut" special forces company will be tried for the direct shooting of protesters on February 20, 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv. The pre-trial investigation has been completed, all materials have been handed over to the court.
This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
The policemen are accused of obstructing a protest, exceeding official authority with serious consequences, a terrorist act, causing grievous bodily harm, intentional murder and attempted murder, as well as stealing a service weapon (Part 3 of Article 365, Article 340, Part 3 of Article 258, several parts of Article 115, Part 2 of Article 262 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, 48 protesters died and 90 received gunshot wounds due to their actions, on the orders of the top management.
The prosecutorʼs office does not name the names and titles of the "Berkut" fighters, but only publishes a blurred photo of the suspects and indicates that they were from the so-called black company of "Berkut".
All six are currently hiding in Russia and have already become its citizens, so the indictment was submitted to the court for consideration under a special absentee procedure (in absentia). As for the other 14 policemen of this unit, who are also involved in the shootings, the special investigation is already being completed.
At the beginning of this month, on October 4, SBI completed the investigation into the shooting of protesters against the suspects from the top leadership of the state, which gave the order. Among them are Viktor Yanukovych and the entire power block of Ukraine at that time — nine former high-ranking officials.
- On November 21, 2013, Euromaidan began in Ukraine, after Viktor Yanukovych stopped preparations for signing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. The protests turned into anti-government protests and gained a larger scale after the police dispersed the students on November 30. In February 2014, the shooting of demonstrators led to the overthrow of the Yanukovych regime.
- The Euromaidan events were called the Revolution of Dignity, and the dead were called the Heavenly Hundred Heroes. According to the prosecutorʼs office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 107 people died during the revolution. Another 2.5 thousand people were injured.