Court Closes Euromaidan Assault Case Against Kharkiv Mayor

Poltava’s Kyivskiy district court has closed criminal proceedings against Kharkiv mayor Gennady Kernes and his two security guards, Vitaliy Blynnyk and Yevhen Smytskiy, accused of assaulting and abducting activists of the local Euromaidan movement in 2014.

The judge stated that the prosecution’s refusal to support their clients equated to withdrawal of charges. The prosecutors have failed to turn up to court without valid reason for the past seven hearings.

Photo credit: UNIAN

This does not mean that Kernes has been acquitted, although the Kharkiv official told Ukrainian TV channel NewsOne that he was expecting precisely that.

This decision can be appealed within a period of seven days.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has spoken out against the court’s decision to stop criminal proceedings.

“Is this decision legal? Of course not. And we will prove its illegality with the relevant appeals, which we are preparing now,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prosecutor General Anzhela Stryzhevska said in a briefing on August 10.

Photo credit: Anna Chaplay/UNIAN

On January 25, 2014, unidentified individuals turned up at a local Euromaidan protest in Kharkiv and began attacking the activists. Later that day, two activists went missing after they photographed cars belonging to members of Kernes’ inner circle outside the Kharkiv hotel where the mayor lives. These activists were allegedly taken into the hotel, beaten and threatened with their lives. Kernes is believed to have assaulted the activists himself. The charges against Kernes and his men were based upon the testimonies of the activists.

Kernes is a former ally of fugitive ex-President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and was even accused of organizing Anti-Maidan protests during the 2014 Euromaidan revolution.

/By Sofia Fedeczko