Ukrainian pol sez evidence in Mukachevo case was falsified
2015-08-18
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Police involved in investigating the shootout last last month between police and local armed groups have been forced to fabricate or destroy evidence by local government and police officials in the Transcarpathian region, according to a Ukrainian language news account which appeared in mukachevo.net and korrespondent.net news outlet.
An unsigned letter was reportedly written by Rada Verkhovna member Viktor Baloga to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office saying that many of the charges against some individuals involved in the July 11th shootout are bogus, and the entire investigation should itself be investigated. Baloga said that evidence in the cases brought last week may have been destroyed or hidden, evidence he said could implicate several others, including local government officials, in the shootout and in smuggling in the region.
Baloga said in his letter than his own refusal to cooperate with the investigation was because several top officials from the region who are pressing the criminal cases have ties to organized crime who may have been involved in the shootout. The officials identified in the letter include V. Patskana, who also is a member of Rada Verkhovna, and a local official identified as CF Shymonyaka, both of whom have ties to a local crime boss identified as Shimoni. Baloga charges Shimoni directly controls the smuggling in excise goods from eastern Europe into Ukraine, and into rebel held areas of southeastern Ukraine.
Shymonyaka, according to the korrespondent.net account, was a local operative for the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Also involved are two others: Mikail Lano, who was directly involved in the shootout, and V. Lunchenko, whom Baloga charges supplied the weapons used by armed groups in the shootout.
Baloga said the members of a local Right Sector, a Ukrainian political group known to supply volunteers for Ukraine's main effort against Russian backed rebels in southeastern Ukraine, were given weapons including machine guns and grenade launchers, then transported across several police checkpoints in Mukachevo before arriving at Antares. The presumption is that police knew about the coming shootout, and had provided help to armed members. He said that cell telephone logs and recordings will verify that some police agents in the area at the time of the shootout had called, and in some cases texted, police commanders while the transportation was taking place. Baloga said the recipients of those calls and messages ignored the warnings about the coming shootout.
Among those recipients were Shymonyaka and a police commander identified as S. Sharanich.
Baloga also said that the police had obtained surveillance warrants from a local court the day before the shootout, and were monitoring movements at the Antares Spa in Mukachevo. He said the police may have deliberately caused or assisted the shootout, despite the fact the shootout cost the lives of two police agents. He said two police department department heads, identified as I. Rusnak and V. Moshak, were under pressure from their superiors to alter or destroy evidence, presumably which might have implicated local officials in both the shootout and excise goods smuggling through the region.
Baloga said surveillance videos slated to be used in prosecuting cases were turned over to another member of Rada Verkhovna, M. Nayemu, which were then posted to the internet. The order to destroy those videos apparently came from local police officials, and in reaction, Moshak gave them to Nayemu. Those videos purport to show how some armed individuals moved freely in and out of Antares the day of the shootout.
Both I. Rusnak and V. Moshak were fired from their jobs.
The July 11th shootout at the Antares Spa and Bar in Mukachevo left four dead and 14 wounded. A total of seven cases were fielded against the Right Sector members involved in the shootout.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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