On October 18, the Sviatoshynskyi District Court of Kyiv announced the verdicts against five former Berkut officers in the case of the shootings on Instytutska Street on February 20, 2014, when 48 people were killed. The five accused Berkut officers are Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, Oleksandr Marynchenko, Serhiy Tamtura and deputy regiment commander Oleh Yanishevsky.
This was reported by a SUSPILNE correspondent.
There were only two defendants in the courtroom - Oleksandr Marynchenko and Serhiy Tamtura. The rest - Oleg Yanishevsky, Serhiy Zinchenko and Vyacheslav Abroskin - are wanted after the exchange of prisoners with Russia in December 2019. They fled to Russia.
The jury's verdict was read by presiding judge Serhiy Dyachuk.
The court found the deputy commander of the regiment, Oleh Yanishevsky, guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He was also stripped of all his ranks. Pavel Abroskin and Sergei Zinchenko were also found guilty of murder and sentenced to 15 years with deprivation of all ranks and the right to hold office for 3 years.
The court found Oleksandr Marynchenko guilty of abuse of power and sentenced him to 5 years with a 2-year disqualification to hold positions related to law enforcement. However, he has already served 5 years in jail.
"Consider Marinchenko to have fully served the main sentence of imprisonment for 5 years imposed by the court under this verdict," Judge Serhiy Dyachuk said.
At the same time, the court acquitted Serhiy Tamtura of all charges.
In addition, the court granted permission to detain Abroskin, Zinchenko and Yanishevsky, who are wanted, to ensure the execution of the sentence. The Sviatoshynskyi District Court also ruled that the victims of the case should be paid between UAH 40,000 and UAH 1 million in moral damages. The verdict can be appealed within 30 days.
After the verdict was announced, lawyer Stefan Reshko said in a commentary to Suspilne that he would appeal the decision regarding the three defendants.
"As for Yanishevsky, he was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. We have big questions here, and we will, of course, appeal this part of the verdict. Because during the trial, we were unable to identify Yanishevsky among the numerous people we saw. But the court came to a different conclusion, so we will find out. And Abroskin and Zinchenko too," the lawyer said.
Prosecutor Oleksiy Donskiy also said that he plans to appeal this verdict in full - both in terms of qualifications and in terms of individual charges.
"The logic is somewhat incomprehensible to us: if three people are found guilty of murder, and Marynchenko is found guilty of abuse of power and acquitted of murder. This is the position that we argued in the debate and referred not to our own judgment, but to the Supreme Court ruling, which is binding. And it clearly states that if there is a group of people who commit a crime, it is not so important who directly committed the murder, but who committed active or even passive actions. It is enough that it was a group that acted in concert. All these criteria, based on the available evidence, are fully met by the actions of this special Berkut company on February 20," Donskiy said.
Relatives of the fallen participants of the Revolution of Dignity attended the announcement of the verdict, including Yuriy Aksenin, the son of Vasyl Aksenin, who was shot on February 20, 2014 and later died in a Polish hospital. Yuriy said that he would appeal the court's decision and seek life imprisonment for all the defendants.
Svitlana Chaplinska, the wife of the Heavenly Hundred Hero Volodymyr Chaplinsky, who died on the Maidan on February 20, 2014, is also dissatisfied with the court's decision and plans to appeal it.
"Only one of them was given life imprisonment, although all of them should have been sentenced to life, because those Berkut officers were shooting at them. The bullet went through my husband, but he was shot at, but it was just not proven. They were all shooting there, and they all deserve life in prison," the woman said.
On February 20, 2014, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, 48 people were killed on Instytutska Street. Hundreds more were injured and wounded. The case against 5 Berkut officers of the Kyiv special company - Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, Oleh Yanishevskyi, Serhiy Tamtura and Oleksandr Marynchenko - has been heard in court since 2016. In December 2019, the defendants were transferred to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.
In early 2020, Tamtura and Marynchenko returned to Ukraine to prove their innocence, as they reported. At first, the case was considered only against them, and then, when Ukraine adopted a law on in absentia investigation, the case was merged and the five Berkut officers were considered.
In total, more than 4,700 crimes against participants of the Revolution of Dignity are being investigated in all cities of Ukraine.
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