Maidan cases: Berkut officers who fired the first shots at protesters to be tried
Kyiv • UNN
An indictment against three ex-Berkut officers for the murder and injury of protesters on February 20, 2014 in Kyiv has been submitted to the court. They are charged with abuse of power and premeditated murder.
Law enforcement officers have sent to court an indictment against the former company commander of the Berkut special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Sevastopol and two policemen of this unit in the case of the massacre of activists on February 20, 2014 on Instytutska Street in Kyiv. This was reported by the Prosecutor General's Office, UNN reports.
Details
The Berkut officers are reportedly charged with abuse of power, execution of a clearly criminal order, accompanied by violence, unlawful obstruction of the organization and holding of meetings, rallies, street marches and demonstrations, premeditated murder of three people and attempted murder of three more people.
The investigation established that the company commander of the Berkut special forces unit and his subordinates were on Instytutska Street in Kyiv on February 20, 2014, around 9:00 am, near the pedestrian bridge.
Acting in coordination with law enforcement officers from other units, including a special company of the Kyiv Berkut, they illegally used firearms against the protesters - Fort-500 pump-action rifles equipped with lead shot cartridges. As a result, three protesters were killed and three others sustained gunshot wounds of varying severity
These crimes preceded the subsequent mass premeditated killings and injuries of protesters by police officers of the Kyiv Berkut special forces - the so-called “black company” - and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, using rifled automatic and sniper firearms.
After these events, the defendants returned to Sevastopol, where they later sided with the Russian Federation and contributed to the annexation of the peninsula, the OTP added.
Recall
On February 20, 2014, 48 protesters were killed in the central part of Kyiv, and more than 90 others were shot. For these crimes, 38 people were brought to criminal responsibility, including 4 high-ranking officials and 34 law enforcement officers, and indictments against them were submitted to the court. Of these, 4 members of the Berkut special police unit have been convicted, while the others are still in court.
