Fugitive Party of Regions member Vadym Kolesnichenko has been sentenced by the court to a five-year prison term

Fugitive Party of Regions member Vadym Kolesnichenko has been sentenced by the court to a five-year prison term

Together with him, two former colonels of the police from the Yanukovych era were sentenced in absentia.

The court sentenced former Member of Parliament from the ‘Party of Regions’ Vadym Kolesnichenko, the former head of public security police, and the deputy commander of Kyiv’s ‘Berkut’ in the case concerning the 2010 conflict at the exhibition hall ‘Ukrainian House’. All three received five years of imprisonment, and the former law enforcement officers were additionally stripped of the special rank of ‘police colonel’, according to ZN.ua citing the Prosecutor General’s Office.

“The court found them guilty of exceeding authority and official powers accompanied by violence, inciting national enmity, hatred, and humiliating national honor and dignity (part 4 of Art. 27, part 2 of Art. 28, part 2 of Art. 365, part 2 of Art. 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine),” noted the Office of the Prosecutor General.

Prosecutors proved in court that Kolesnichenko organized a photo and document exhibition in April 2010 at the ’Ukrainian House’ in the capital, titled ‘Volyn Massacre – Polish and Jewish Victims of OUN-UPA’. He also led it. Thus, the Prosecutor General’s Office added, back then the ‘regional’ wanted to incite national enmity and hatred.

When visitors tried to express their civic stance regarding the relevant historical events, police officers, at Kolesnichenko’s call, used violence and inflicted bodily harm on some individuals. Meanwhile, the ex-deputy at that time insulted the feelings of citizens due to their ideological beliefs.

Moreover, the police illegally detained 13 people, drawing up protocols of alleged administrative offenses against them. Later, the court declared the detainees not guilty.

“Due to the prolonged hiding of the convicts from the investigative and judicial authorities on the territory of the aggressor state and the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the trial against them was conducted under the in absentia procedure,” added the Prosecutor General’s Office.

These former law enforcement officers are also defendants in a criminal case in which they are accused of a number of serious and especially grave crimes during the Revolution of Dignity.

It was earlier reported that an indictment was sent to the court regarding the former commander of the Sevastopol ‘Berkut’ company and two policemen of this unit in the case concerning the mass murder of activists on February 20, 2014, on Instytutska Street in Kyiv. They were charged with exceeding authority, executing an obviously criminal order accompanied by violence, unlawful obstruction to the organization and conduct of gatherings, protests, street processions, and demonstrations, intentional murder of three persons, and attempts to murder three more persons.

It should be noted that during the Revolution of Dignity, a total of 2,500 people were affected, 104 of whom died – most in February 2014. Only on one day, February 20, 2014, 48 peaceful participants of the Revolution of Dignity were fatally wounded. To this day, not all court verdicts in the case of the death of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred on February 20 have been announced.

According to journalists, the police officers in question refer to the former deputy commander of the special-purpose regiment ‘Berkut’, known for his participation in coordinating the unlawful forceful actions of special forces Serhiy Kusyuk and the former head of public security police of the Kyiv Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Petro Fedchuk.