Year after fatal beating of Vadym Komarov his colleagues demand from law enforcement bodies to report on progress investigation
Cherkasy journalists demanded from the law enforcement bodies to report on progress of the investigation into murder of the journalist Vadym Komarov. Today, on May 4, one year has passed since the day of his brutal beating in Cherkasy, that caused his death.
This is said in the open letter signed by several journalists and NGOs and addressed to the prosecutor of the Cherkasy region, Oleksander Voronin, the head of National Police in Cherkasy region Mykhaylo Kuratchenko and the head of the SBU Direction in the Cherkasy region, Yuriy Pogasy.
According to a representative of IMI in Cherkasy region, the letter dated to the anniversary of the attack on Vadym Komarov.
The journalists revealed that since past several months they could not learn anything new about the progress of the investigation and its at least intermediate results. At the same time, the authors of the letter emphasized, they had no doubt that the reason of the attack targeting Komarov had been his professional activity, "which makes this crime particularly blatant and such as required maximum of attention from law enforcement agencies."
“We remind, we consider this is fundamentally important for us that this case is to be solved and thus, we require from the law enforcement authorities of the region to report publicly on the progress of the investigation. This would allow all us to believe that the death of our colleague is not another unpunished crime and that the perpetrators will be found and brought to justice, ”the letter reads.
On the eve of the anniversary in the commentary to Procherk the spokesman of the National Police in Cherkasy region Dmytro Gryshchenko said that the pre-trial investigation into this criminal proceeding was under way.
He said, the investigation is being conducted by a group of eight investigators. Pre-trial investigation is underway, all necessary investigative and procedural actions are held to establish all circumstances of the crime, as well as the identity of the offender and bringing him to justice.
He also added that a number of leads have been put forward and the main version is Komarov had been murdered because of his professional activity.
At the stage of the pre-trial investigation of the criminal proceedings, more than 1,400 persons were questioned in quality of witnesses, and a number of site inspections and searches were conducted. Videos from 99 CCTV cameras were processed, and footage from 40 cameras were seized. 19 expert examinations were made, some of which have already been completed, some are still are in progress.
The open letter has been signed by the most of the editions of Cherkassy, NGOs, individual journalists and activists as of the morning of May 4.
As IMI reported, on the night of June 20, 2019, Cherkassy investigative journalist Vadym Komarov died on June 20. He remained in medically induced coma all this time after assault.
As IMI informed, on May 4th in Cherkassy, some unknown person beat Vadym Komarov, local journalist and video blogger, who investigated facts of corruption in municipal council, illegal real estate development and condition of penitentiary establishment. Komarov was sent to the hospital, he was in a critical condition, as he got an open cranio-cerebral trauma. The police initially instituted a criminal case under part 1 of article 121 (“Intentional grave bodily harm”) of the Criminal Code. But then, the investigators re-qualified the criminal proceedings under articles 15 and 115 of the Criminal Code (“Murderous attempt”).
On May 6, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir called for an effective investigation into the attack on journalist Vadym Komarov.
On May 7, Reporters sans frontières, said they were appalled by the brutal attack and called on the authorities to do everything possible to ensure that this horrific attack did not go unpunished.”
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