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Titushka accused of journalist Veremiy's murder dies

27.10.2022, 18:28
Photo credit: Hromadske
Photo credit: Hromadske

The Shevchenko District Court of Kyiv closed the case against titushka Pavlo Bialay, accused of murdering a journalist during the Maidan, due to the defendant's death. Such a decision was made by a jury headed by judge Oksana Holub on October 27, Watchers reports.

Pavlo Bialay was the "right-hand man" of titushka leader Yuri Krysin. He was incriminated with: Part 2 items 7, 12 of Art. 115 of the Criminal Code (murder for hooligan motives upon prior conspiracy); Part 2 of Art. 296 of the Criminal Code (group hooliganism); Part 2 of Art. 15 of the Criminal Code (attempted crime); Art. 340 of the Criminal Code (Illegal obstruction to organizing or holding meetings, rallies); Part 1 of Art. 263 of the Criminal Code (illegal handling of weapons).

According to the prosecutor's office, Bialay fired a firearm at a taxi car carrying journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy on the night of February 19, 2014. The investigation claimed that Bialay was among the group of titushkas who were shooting at protesters in downtown Kyiv.

At the start of the hearing on October 27, Bialay's lawyer Tetyana Okhrimchuk requested to close the case due to the death of the accused. She attached a copy of the death certificate to back up her words.

"The death occurred on September 13, 2022. Bialay's mother gave me the original death certificate. She stated verbally that she does not wish to consider the issue of a deceased person's further rehabilitation," said the defense attorney.

Prosecutor Volodymyr Mizerny did not object and supported the lawyer's request. Svitlana Kyrylash, the victim, did not object, either. "We verified the fact of his death in the relevant register. Death confirmed. Certificate provided. Therefore, we have no objections," the prosecutor said.

The circumstances of Bialay's death were not disclosed in court. The prosecutor noted that this information is a matter of medical privacy and should be kept confidential.

From the prosecutor's choice of words, the media concluded that Bialay had died from an illness, not from anything related to crime.

In the end, the court granted the defense attorney's request and closed the case. "The court decided: to close the criminal case against Pavlo Bialay due to his death. The civil lawsuit filed by victim Svitlana Kyrylash will be left untried," announced the jury court presided over by judge Oksana Holub.

In her comment to Watchers, victim Svitlana Kyrylash noted that she would have liked justice to be served.

"I cannot say that I am satisfied, because, of course, I wanted to go through with the process to the end, so that justice would be served. But you have to be realistic: the way the Shevchenkiv Court works, with hearings [held] once every two months with constant delays, mainly from the defense side, Bialay, having already received his term, could have never served it, because by that time his term would already have expired. The fact that life punished him – maybe there is something to it, although, unfortunately, we see that it does not always work like that for everyone," she stressed.

As reported by IMI, on August 9, 2021, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv changed the measure of restraint for Pavel Bialay, involved in the murder of journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy, from detention to night house arrest.

Pavlo Bialay was detained on March 9, 2017 and charged under four articles of the Criminal Code, including intentional homicide and illegal handling of weapons, as well as hooliganism and obstructing a peaceful assembly.

According to the investigation, it was Pavlo Bialay who had fired a firearm into the taxi car carrying Vyacheslav Veremiy, then dragged the journalist out of the car and beat him together with other titushkas.

Vyacheslav Veremiy, a journalist of the Vesti newspaper, was murdered on the night of February 19, 2014, at the intersection of Volodymyrska and Velika Zhytomyrska streets in Kyiv. He was first brutally beaten by titushkas, and then received a fatal gunshot wound. The journalist died in an emergency hospital. One of the attackers, who beat Veremia with a bat, turned out to be 41-year-old athlete Yuriy Krysin.

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