Two contradictory examinations presented at court hearing of Maidan case

October 11, the Sviatoshynsky District Court in Kyiv considered two contradictory examinations of death of Yevhen Kotliar, a killed Euromaidan protester.

Five former officers of Berkut special riot police force are defendants in this case, Ukrainian Channel 5 reports.

“The conclusion of initial forensic medical examination, made immediately after the death of Yevhen Kotliar, indicated that a bullet entered his neck from left to right, therefore, snipers must be shooting from the Hotel Ukraine,” the Channel reports.

Later, a sectoral ballistic examination was carried out and it had different conclusions. The bullet entered from right to left. This may indicate that someone was shooting from the barricades. The lawyers of suspects insist that the first study should be taken into account as a more reliable one.

“The main contradiction is whether the entrance wound was on the left or on the right. Since the very beginning and for a period of two years, the bodies of pre-trial investigation have collected evidence that the entrance wound was on the left and that sniper shot from the Hotel Ukraine. The later, the so-called ‘comprehensive’ examination came to another conclusion, but those experts were not near the body,” defense attorney Ihor Varfolomeyev said.

In turn, the prosecution argues that the sectoral examination is a more comprehensive one.

“Defense notes that the bullet allegedly flew out of the Hotel Ukraine, but the relevant sectoral expert conclusion pointed out that the bullet flew out of a sector of the concrete barricades, where the Berkut officers and other law enforcement officials with firearms stayed. We believe that this conclusion eliminates these contradictions,” prosecutor of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine Yanis Simonov said.

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.