New video shown at court hearing in Maidan shooting case

A new video, which has not been made public before, was shown at the court hearing of the Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv over the case of five former Berkut riot police officers, who are accused of killing Euromaidan activists.

As Channel 5 reports, one of the activists, Volodymyr Melnychuk, was shot dead near the October Palace at about 17:00. Then, the active confrontation between the security forces and Maidan activists was already over.

One and the same video fragment was viewed at the hearing seven times. It shows a sniper shooting an unarmed and defenseless resident of Kyiv Volodymyr Melnychuk right in front of other activists and his wife.

The examination concluded that the man was killed by 8mm-9mm bullets, i.e. a Kalashnikov rifle. He had no chances to survive.

The accused, in turn, claimed that unknown persons had been shooting from the roof the Ukraine Hotel. In response, the prosecution showed another video, not made public until now.

It was recorded by CCTV cameras installed on the building of the National Bank. After the video was shown, former Berkut officers no longer insisted on the shots from the hotel’s roof, but merely claimed that other police riot officers had been shooting from behind the concrete barricades.

May 17, the court began consideration on the merits of the case against five former Berkut special riot police officers: Pavlo Abroskin, Serhiy Zinchenko, Oleksandr Marynchenko, Serhiy Tamtura and Oleh Yanishevsky.

They are accused of shooting dead Euromaidan activists in the Instytutska Street in Kyiv in February 2014.

They officers do not acknowledge their guilt.

A total of 25 law enforcement officers, who fired in the Instytutska Street, were managed to be identified. Twenty of them are wanted.