"MPs Don’t Care About Maidan Case" - Lawyer of Affected Families

26 November 2019 16:28

Lawyer to the families of the people who died during the Euromaidan Revolution speaks to Hromadske on November 22. On November 21, she announced a hunger strike to draw attention to the lack of investigation into the murders.htv_prod_adminadske

Yevhenia Zakrevska who represents the families of the Heavenly Hundred Heroes believes that the fact that some of the deputies never even heard about the amendment that would allow transferring Maidan investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the State Bureau of Investigations indicates that they have more important things on their minds.

Because the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) lost competence to investigate the Maidan case, all the materials are being transferred to the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), which, however, currently lacks the resources to take on the task. Zakrevska points out that the status quo practically means “the end of the investigation”.

What they’re doing now is selling fictions: it’s not an audit, it’s an inventory count.

Riot police detains a protester during an anti-government protest in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, 18 February 2014. EPA/ALEXEY FURMAN

The lawyer suggested amending the law on SBI to allow PGO investigators who have previously been engaged with the Maidan cases to move to SBI. Whilst this idea was initially supported and the parliamentary committee approved the amendment, on November 15 it was not even considered “because the working day ended”. The investigation automatically stopped on the following day due to the end of investigative jurisdiction.

The aggrieved parties along with their lawyers asked for an extraordinary meeting to consider and approve this norm. However, nobody called it, which gave Zakrevska an impression that the MPs have more important things to do.

The next session is not until December 3. Prosecutors leave because they became nobodies. They don’t know what to do.

Moreover, when European Solidarity MP Andriy Parubiy was asked about the issue on the same day he testified about shootings on the Maidan on November 21, he said he never even heard about such amendment.

In protest of the halting of investigation, Zakrevska started a hunger strike on November 21. She said she would only end the strike when the amendment is passed and relevant investigators are transferred to the SBI.

MP from the Servant of the People's Party Iryna Vereshchuk announced that consideration of this amendment is scheduled for December 5.

Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Chumak said that he had previously offered Zakrevska to head the PGO department on Maidan affairs and take responsibility for the investigation of these proceedings.

Riot police beat a protester on February 18, 2014 during the Euromaidan Revolution in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Sergey Dolzhenko / EPA

All the crimes committed during the Revolution of Dignity were conditionally combined into one big "Maidan case", which comprises 89 criminal proceedings. Deaths of 91 people (78 protesters and 13 security officers) are being investigated.

READ MORE: The Maidan Cases In Numbers And In Pictures

/Interview by Tetiana Bezruk

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