Donetsk, Sep 19 - DAN.The detention of two anti-Maidan activists immediately after their acquittal in the case over the 2 May 2014 Odessa tragedy arouses indignation, DPR ombudswoman Darya Morozova told Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.
“I’m indignant that the exonerated Yevgenia Mefedova and Sergey Dozhenkov were arrested in the courtroom on new charges,” Morozova said. “We have no doubts that these people are innocent.”
According to the DPR ombudswoman, the three-year trial contradicted the European Convention on Human Rights. The Ukrainian court has been unable to show evidence of the defendants’ guilt while the real culprits behind the tragic events have never been punished.
On Monday, Iliychevskiy Town Court passed not-guilty verdicts on the defendants in the 2 May 2014 Odessa tragedy (Greek Square riots) case. Immediately after the verdict was announced, Ukrainian prosecutors charged the acquitted Yevgenia Mefedova and Sergey Dolzhenkov with “encroachment on territorial integrity” (under Ukraine’s Criminal Code Article 110). The anti-Maidan activists were detained in the courtroom.
The trial lasted three years. There were twenty people in the prisoner’s dock, including Russian citizens. Initially, the Greek Square riots case was handled by the Primorskiy Court, but later on it was passed to Odessa’s Malinovskiy District Court. The indictment was repeatedly returned to prosecutors and each time, the panel of judges had to be restaffed. In May 2017, the case was remitted to Chernomorsk (formerly Ilyichevsk) Town Courtas Malinovskiy Court had no more judges who had the right to review the case.
On 2 May 2014, activists of the Right Sector extremist organisation of neo-fascist ideology together with so-called Maidan Self-Defence activists burnt down a tent camp in Kulikovo field where signature collection was underway in support of the referendum on federalisation of Ukraine and official status of the Russian language.
The supporters of federalisation and anti-Maidan movement took shelter in the Trade Unions House but radicals encircled the building and torched it. The tragedy left 200 people dead and more than 200 injured, according to different sources. Riots took place in other parts of Odessa. The culprits were never punished, while the injured parties found themselves in the prisoner’s dock.*jk