February 19, 2014, the Maidan after the storming of the security forces (Photo: Natalia Kravchuk / NV)
The court sentenced a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, who in 2014 took out fighters, to 10 years in absentia «black mouth” Berkut special unit from Kyiv, and also destroyed their service weapons.
About this reported in the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The former law enforcement officer was found guilty of organizing the removal of a squad of employees of the Berkut special-purpose company involved in the mass murders of protest participants on February 20, 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv, as well as destroying and hiding their service firearms.
In the evening of February 23 «Berkut residents” were transported to the production premises of one of the project institutes, where they were given a separate place for hiding. In the morning of the next day, with the assistance and financing of the figure, the workers «“Berkutu” went in groups by taxi outside Kyiv in the direction of Mykolaiv, and some of them further outside the borders of Ukraine.
The convict also destroyed the tools of committing crimes – 24 AKMS assault rifles, one Dragunov sniper rifle, three Fort-500 rifles and one Fort-12 rifle, which were in service at “Berkuta” and were used against the participants of the protest actions.
According to prosecutors, the man cut each weapon «Bulgarian” into 3-4 parts and removed the markings — the serial numbers of the assault rifles and the sniper rifle. Later, the ex-law enforcement officer took the destroyed weapon to the Zhukiv Island area in Kyiv, where he drowned part of it in the Vita River, a tributary of the Dnipro River, and buried the other part on the shore.
The court found the former law enforcement officer guilty of four charges:
- in excess of power and official authority, which caused serious consequences, committed in execution of an obviously criminal order (Part 4 Art. 41, part 3 of Art. 365 CCU);
- in carrying a firearm without a permit prescribed by law (Part 1 Art. 263 CCU);
- in the illegal removal of markings of firearms committed by a group of persons in a prior conspiracy (Part 2 Art. 263-1 CCU);
- in the previously unpromised concealment of serious and especially serious crimes (Part 1 Art. 396 CCU).
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and was also deprived of a special rank «lieutenant colonel of the militia” and the right to hold any positions in law enforcement agencies for a period of 3 years. The court satisfied the civil lawsuit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against the accused regarding the compensation of material damages in the amount of more than UAH 677,000 — the value of exported, destroyed and sunk weapons.
The fugitive has been hiding from the investigation and the court in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine for a long time, so the court proceedings against him were carried out according to a special procedure in absentia – that is, in absentia.
The investigation established that on February 20, 2014, 48 murders and 80 attempted murders took place on Instytutska Street. Law enforcement officers identified 25 security officers involved in the shootings of protesters. Most of them are hiding.