Life sentence for the murder of 16-year-old Maksym Materukhin on the funicular - Court of Appeal upholds verdict

The Kyiv Court of Appeal considered the appeal of Artem Kosov, who was previously sentenced to life imprisonment for the intentional murder of 16-year-old Maksym Materukhin. The court upheld the verdict - life imprisonment - without changes, UNN reports.

Details

As UNN learned, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict against the man who killed 16-year-old Maksym Materukhin at the capital's funicular station.

Context

On April 8, 2024, Artem Kosov was notified of suspicion of intentional murder of a teenager. As the investigation established, the incident occurred at the upper funicular station, which leads to the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Kosov, being intoxicated, began to harass a group of teenagers, among whom was Maksym Materukhin. Kosov pushed the 16-year-old boy, who died from the impact of the fall.

On September 22, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv sentenced Artem Kosov to life imprisonment for the murder of Materukhin on the funicular. The prosecution requested the highest measure of punishment for the accused. At that time, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko stated that the prosecution in the case of the murder of a teenager on the capital's funicular was ready for an appeal.

Addition

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko expressed the initiative on the need to introduce an alternative-free punishment in the form of life imprisonment for particularly serious crimes against children. He appealed to the law enforcement committee of the Verkhovna Rada with a proposal to support the relevant initiative and introduce such punishment for the murder and rape of children.

Today, life imprisonment is provided in exceptional cases; mostly, it is about punishment in the form of 15 years of imprisonment, sometimes with the possibility of reducing the term of punishment.

It should be added that the prosecution is actively seeking the most severe sentence - life imprisonment for serious crimes against children.