Former regional police chief to be tried in Cherkasy for persecution of Maidan participants

The Office of the Prosecutor General has submitted an indictment to the court against the former chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Cherkasy region. The press service of the Office of the Prosecutor General has reported this. He is charged with unlawful obstruction of meetings and demonstrations, organizing the abuse of authority by law enforcement officers, which was accompanied by violence, as well as the illegal detention and prosecution of individuals known to be innocent. The former head of the then-militia, on January 23 and 27, 2014, organized and supervised violent actions by law enforcement officers to obstruct the peaceful protests of Maidan participants in Cherkasy.

Over 50 people suffered injuries of varying severity due to the violent actions of law enforcement personnel. Additionally, law enforcement officers, with an abuse of authority and the use of physical force, detained 62 individuals, who were later brought to the internal affairs agencies. There, investigators fabricated documents and filed reports on their detention, falsely charging them with participation in mass disturbances. Subsequently, judges, at the request of investigators and prosecutors, unjustly arrested these citizens. The accused has been in hiding for an extended period within the territory of Russia and on territory not controlled by Ukraine, and is currently in international search. Permission from the court was obtained, and a special pre-trial investigation was conducted. A preventive measure, detention, was also imposed on him by the court. Furthermore, after the start of full-scale aggression by Russia against Ukraine in May 2022, this individual assumed a pseudo-position as the "chief of police" in the unlawfully established formation on the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region, the so-called "Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Kherson region." He is facing criminal liability in a separate criminal case for these actions. Other individuals who were involved in violent actions against Maidan participants in Cherkasy have also been charged with criminal liability.