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The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Court renews examination of Ihor Indylo’s death

03.10.2011    source: www.svidomo.org
Kyiv’s Desnyansky District Court resumed hearings into the death in custody of young student Ihor Indylo who died in May 2010 during the night of what should have been his 20th birthday. The new judge rejected the application from the Indylo family’s lawyer for additional investigation into the case

Kyiv’s Desnyansky District Court resumed hearings into the death in custody of young student Ihor Indylo who died in May 2010 during the night of what should have been his 20th birthday. There is a new judge – Oleksy Panasyuk. He rejected the application from the Indylo family’s lawyer, Oleksandr Zarutsky, for additional investigation into the case.

Mr Zarutsky believes that the investigators and court should examine charges of exceeding official duties leading to grave consequences. He says that the police officers did not call an ambulance in time, and the doctors did not provide adequate help. He also stresses that the investigators did not adequately investigate the reasons for Ihor’s death. Two forensic examinations gave conflicting results. The first found that he had received an injury from falling from the level of his own height (hinting that he had fallen in a state of intoxication either in the hostel or in the investigator’s office).  The second was that he had died after falling from the bench in his cell.

In April Judge Margarita Vasilyeva supported this and sent the case back to the Prosecutor’s Office for additional investigation. However the Prosecutor’s Office managed to overturn this with the Court of Appeal returning the case for examination without additional investigation.

The investigators’ version is that one officer was guilty of neglect, and the other of exceeding official powers.

Svidomo has received video footage from the police cells. It promises on Monday to provide images which cast in doubt the Prosecutor’s version. The link here http://youtube.com/watch?v=lpKE88exTLs&feature=player_embedded is the footage showing Ihor falling this supposedly be the cause of death. 

Ihor Indylo had had a brief argument with a police officer living in his student hostel, and the latter asked him to come to the police station. He died within the next 12 hours.  It was a report on TV 1+1 which prevented the case being hushed up. 

In August, Amnesty International issued the following comments on the ruling from the Court of Appeal under the title “Justice not done in Ukrainian student death investigation”

Ihor Indilo, 19, died from a fractured skull and internal bleeding on 17 May 2010 after being arrested and interrogated by two officers in Kyiv. An autopsy revealed his injuries were caused by "contact with a blunt object"; police say these occurred when he fell off a small bench. 

Judges in Kyiv's court of appeal yesterday took 15 minutes to conclude that no further investigation was required into Ihor Indilo death, effectively accepting the police explanation.

"The explanation for Ihor Indilo's death that has been given by the police and supported by the Prosecutor just doesn’t add up.” said John Dalhuisen, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Programme.
 

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