Murder of Heavenly Hundred: Law enforcement officers complete investigation of Maidan case
Pravda Ukraine
Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) have completed the investigation of a large-scale case against the former leadership of Ukraine for organising the dispersal and shooting of demonstrators on 18-20 February 2014. Prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office sent an indictment to the court against Viktor Yanukovych, former president of Ukraine, and the then security forces of the country.
Source: State Bureau of Investigation, Prosecutor General’s Office
Details: The following criminal group members – former high-ranking officials – are accused of committing serious crimes:
- President of Ukraine (Viktor Yanukovych);
- Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (Vitalii Zakharchenko);
- Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine;
- Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (Oleksandr Yakymenko);
- First deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine – head of the Anti-Terrorist Centre (Volodymyr Totskyi);
- Minister of Defence of Ukraine (Pavlo Lebeiev);
- Head of the Main Department – commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (Stanislav Shuliak);
- Acting head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv (Valerii Mazan);
- Deputy head of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine – head of the Public Security Police;
- Commander of the Berkut Police tactical unit at the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv.
It is established that on 18-20 February 2014, these officials gave orders and made appropriate decisions on the use of special means, military equipment, and firearms by law enforcement officers for forceful counteraction and dispersal of demonstrators in the centre of the capital and the cessation of protest actions without proper grounds and in violation of the norms of the current legislation.
Officials also organised an assault on the Maidan under the guise of an “anti-terrorist operation” and ordered to shoot the protesters on the morning of 20 February. This was done with abuse of power and official authority and without legal grounds.
Such actions of the former president and former law enforcement officials led to mass casualties among protesters in the central part of Kyiv, including the death of 67 civilians. A total of 887 people and 132 law enforcement officers were injured. More than UAH 16 million (about US$417,000) of property damage was caused by this.
To avoid responsibility, the former officials fled from Ukraine, so the pre-trial investigation was carried out according to a special procedure, and the investigating judge chose a preventive measure in the form of detention against them.
This criminal proceeding combines 1,019 episodes of criminal obstruction of protest actions and includes 1,878 volumes of collected materials.
The former president and leaders of the security forces are accused of organising the commission from 18 to 20 February 2014 as part of a criminal group of illegal obstruction of meetings, rallies, marches and demonstrations, abuse of power and official authority by law enforcement officers, premeditated murders and completed attempted murders, causing intentional grievous bodily harm, as well as organising a terrorist act.
The pre-trial investigation also established that the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine and the commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine served in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR, and, as a result, acquired Russian citizenship, gained access to military and state secrets of the Russian Federation, took the oath of allegiance to its people and were on all types of support in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
By ordering the use of violence against the protesters, they acted in the interests of the Russian Federation, to which they had taken an oath of allegiance.
Given that some of the defendants are hiding in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the latter will be taken into custody and brought to court immediately after the liberation of these territories by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the SBI said.
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