| Information |  | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
| ||
| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
| ||
13Dec17
Georgian mercenaries reveal who fired at protesters on Kiev's 'maidan' in winter 2014
Fire at protesters on Kiev's Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, was delivered in winter 2014 by the mercenaries who had arrived in Kiev for the purpose of organizing disorders, lawyer Alexander Goroshinsky told 112.Ukraina channel on Tuesday.
Goroshinsky, who represents the interests of former officers of the Berkut special assignment battalion, quoted the evidence he had managed to get from two citizens of Georgia from among the mercenaries, Alexander Revazishvili and Koba Nergadze.
He said they had agreed during a meeting with him in Tbilisi to testify before the court but only in the mode of a teleconference because of apprehensions for their lives.
Goroshinsky also said he filed a request for organizing a questioning session with Revazishvili and Nergadze during the regular court hearings on Tuesday.
He said the information he had gleaned from conversation with the two men suggested fire was delivered on February 20, 2014, at the protesters and the military likewise.
"The eyewitnesses said they had seen with their own eyes a group of people who had received weapons and cartridges and who would deliver fire afterwards from the building of the Conservatoire," Goroshinsky said. "Nergadze also saw snipers at the roof of Hotel Ukraine. They know the individuals personally. Besides, they know the organizers and clients and are ready to give their names, as well as the names of the perpetrators."
"In all, about fifty mercenaries arrived in Kiev then and they were involved in the events on the Maidan afterwards and fired at the protesters on February 20," Goroshinsky went on. "The mercenaries split into groups of ten men each and were dispatched to different spots where from they delivered fire."
"Each of them [the mercenaries] received $ 5,000 for the job done," he said. "In other words, these people had been brought [to Kiev] with a well-specified task to create a conflict."
The channel showed a video recording of the lawyer's conversation with the two Georgian witnesses, who named themselves and put signatures under a document stating their consent to testify in the courtroom.
In May 2015, Kiev's Svyatoshino district court began consideration on merits of a case against five former officers of the Berkut battalion who are charged with fulfilling a premeditated criminal order to use firearms and committing a terrorist act.
All the five men strongly deny any guilt on their part on any item of the charges. Somewhat earlier, the Svyatoshino court extended the term of their arrest through to the end of this year.
Clashes in downtown Kiev in winter 2014 resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred people, including nineteen law enforcers. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, more than a thousand policemen and servicemen of special assignment forces received wounds period of November 21, 2013, and February 20, 2014.
Ukrainian prosecutorial agencies do not investigate these facts, however.
[Source: Itar Tass, Kiev, 13Dec17]
Donate
Radio Nizkor
 | This document has been published on 13Dec17 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |