Prosecutor General’s Office stonewalling investigation into May 2 events – activists

The “May 2 Group” initiative impeaches the Prosecutor General’s Office due to obvious stonewalling of the investigation into the bloody events in Odesa on May 2, 2014.

The case has not yet been submitted to the court after 20 months of investigation, and some of the facts have not been started to be investigated at all, the activists claim in the statement.

According to them, the Prosecutor General’s Office has narrowed the list of suspects for police inaction down to one person.

The indictment in the part of the case, which will be submitted to the court, is likely to have no prospects, the statement reads. The investigation regarding the inactivity of employees of the State Service for Emergency Situations has not been carried out at all.

Despite the promises of the officials, none of the bodies has invited the international experts while the investigating authorities are doing their best to conceal the results of the investigation.

“The members of the group have met several times with representatives of the UN mission, the Council of Europe and the European Union, foreign journalists and politicians to inform them about the actual circumstances of May 2 events. It is almost impossible to get this information from official sources: the representatives of the investigating authorities have not held any press conferences for a year and a half, they have given no answers to requests for information and appeals, and official reports have been chaotic and controversial,” reads the statement of the activists.

The members of the group also note that the representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry do not want to cooperate and “are not interested in a transparent and open process.”

As a reminder, May 2, 2014, the clashes between the supporters of Euromaidan and Antimaidan occurred in Odesa downtown. The parties to the conflict masked their faces and were carrying wooden boards, some of them were armed. Police did not respond to street clashes. The fire started in the House of Trade Unions during the confrontation. The rescuers did not arrive in time, so the fire quickly spread on the floors. As of May 14, the law enforcement officers confirmed that 48 people had been killed in clashes on May 2.