Photo credit: Serhiy Nuzhnenko
Relatives and colleagues of Pavel Sheremet
expect that the President Volodymyr Zelensky will undertake measures which could give a new impetus to the investigation into the murder of a journalistю They believe that the Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov, the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and the head of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev have to resign.
The respective statement signed by Sheremet’s colleagues and relatives was read out by editor-in-chief of the “
Ukrayinska Pravda” Sevgil Musayeva at the action "Who killed Pavel? Three years without a response ", as
Interfax-Ukraine reported.
"We demand from the President Volodymyr Zelensky to form the working group of law enforcement officials who could report: firstly, what has been done during those three years ... We also want that new working group to be formed to give a new impetus to this case. Three years have been passed since the tragedy, but we still hope that solving of the murder of Pavel Sheremet is a matter of honor for Ukraine and for the new president, "Musayeeva read out the statement.
Also, colleagues and relatives of the journalist expressed their hope that the ninth convocation parliament would support this society's demand for justice.
"We demand political liability for the heads of law enforcement agencies who have not been able to answer the question ‘Who killed Pavel? We emphasize that the Minister of the Interior Arsen Avakov, the Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and the head of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev have to resign due failure to make progress into this case, "the statement reads.
Musayeva explained that the latest public report on the investigation of the murder was made on February 17, 2017 - at the press conference of Arsen Avakov, where he presented the head of the National Police Serhiy Knyazev.
She also noted that Sheremet's colleagues had been asked to requalify the case: from the deliberate murder to an act of terrorism. "We, our colleagues and relatives of Pavel, believe and we really know that the purpose of this murder is not only to deprive us of colleague and to kill the person dear for us, but to intimidate us... To intimidate the journalists, to intimidate people", Musayeva, told, and stressed that the murder had been committed in public place.
"Unfortunately, the case has not been re-qualified as a terrorist attack," she concluded.
IMI reported, on July 19th,
Artem Shevchenko, head of the Communications department of the Ministry of the Interior told at the press biefing on July 19 that no suspects of Pavel Sheremet murder have been identified at that moment.
“The criminal proceeding is investigated by the investigators of the Main investigative directorate of the National police. They have not transferred to us any information to be made public for now. The crime has not been solved, at present the suspects have not been identified”, Shevchenko said.
According to him, if investigators find it necessary to disclose any part of information in this criminal proceeding, “at any time, not only related to calendar, in connection to some date, but any time, we will do it quite quickly.”
“Please, don’t consider such a complicated, especially grave crime within some calendar date. The Criminal procedure code does not envisage any report to be presented. The only report of the work of the investigation team may be the detention of a person whom they will charge with, the second case: the pressing charges against a person who has not been detained for the moment. Neither the first, nor the second case did occur yet. Understand the investigators: it’s a grievous crime, it’s hard to investigate it. Do not demand an attitude toward this work of immense complexity as toward some calendar-related event, related to some date”, Shevchenko added.
He also noted that former Prosecutor general Viktor Shokin had been questioned by the National police investigators within this case “regarding the information he made public in one of his latest public interviews." In early July 2019, former Prosecutor general Viktor Shokin told interviewed by some media he was “practically sure” about the identity of the person who had ordered the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet. According to him, this person, “had earlier and has now a rather high position.”
