Parliamentary investigation "findings" - no assailants, no witnesses ...

The title of an article by Oksana Denisova says it all: Poltergeist in Parliament: Deputies injured without attackers or witnesses”.  Images of the violence in Ukraine’s parliament on 16 December received coverage throughout the world.  Not that you would know it from the parliamentary investigation commission’s report.  

Members of the opposition had blockaded the parliamentary tribune in protest over arrests which they saw as political persecution. Deputies from the Party of the Regions stormed the tribune and a number of the opposition deputies ended up needing hospitalization.

Despite the number of images which sped around the world, the Prosecutor originally initiated a criminal investigation only against those who had blocked the tribune.  There was outrage over this, not only from the political opposition, and a criminal investigation was initiated on 21 December.  This investigation is still apparently underway.. 

As reported, the opposition deputies claim that they only received medical examinations a week after the event, and one asserted that his doctor had been put under pressure to minimize the extent of his injuries.  

On Thursday the Verkhovna Rada Commission’s findings were released.  Oksana Denisova says that according to these “findings”, one could assume that the events of 16 December were the work of some poltergeist with creatures from another planet.

The bloodletting is referred to as an “accident”, resulting in a deputy receiving concussion and a closed head and skull injurity.

The Commission did not establish the identity of the assailants, nor find witnesses or motives for the incident. Among the measures they recommend to remove the reasons for the incident are “unwavering observance” of the law on the Verkhovna Rada Regulations and the norms of behaviour in public places.

Mykhailo Volynets, one of the deputies (from BYuT) who received quite serious injuries, is outraged by the report which did not establish who had assaulted him and claims that there were no witnesses. He is demanding that the Speaker of Parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn hold the members of the Commission to answer.

Volynets is particularly scathing about the claim that there were no witnesses and says “there a lot of people who saw Tsiurko hurl a chair at me, and there were also several television cameras and journalists”.

From reports at Ukrainska Pravda and Kommersant-Ukraine