Assaulted journalists angered by whitewashing of passive police officers

The Prosecutor’s Office has terminated the criminal investigation into the behaviour of police officers who stood and simply watched on 18 May when Channel 5 journalist Olha Snitsarchuk and her photographer husband, Vlad Sodel were assaulted. As reported, on 18 May an “antifascist” rally was organized by the ruling party to counter the planned opposition rally “Rise Ukraine”.  While the two demonstrations passed peacefully, there were obvious attempts by hired thugs to provoke trouble. Olha Snitsarchuk and Vlad Sodel approached a group of supporters of the VO Svoboda party who were under attack from around 50 athletic looking thugs.  Some of the latter first turned on Vlad Sodel when they saw him taking photographs then one began attacking Olha Snitsarchuk.   The police just stood and watched, ignoring requests for help (and the very obvious need to intervene).

Public outrage forced the Interior Minister Zakharchenko, and the Prosecutor’s Office to respond.  Zacharchenko showed a video supposedly made by the chief suspect at liberty claiming that he had been employed as a guard by the opposition.  Serhiy Titushko was arrested, but then bailed, and is facing charges, together with some others, believed to have been hired to “guard” the Party of the Regions “anti-fascist” event.

Channel 5 reports that the Prosecutor’s Office claims that the incident was finally resolved through the intervention of the police.  The decision to determinate the criminal investigation comes despite the fact that the investigators had already found Snitsarchuk and Sodel to have been the injured party.