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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.

Vradiyivka: All the promises prove empty

06.01.2014   

Vradiyivka, July 2013

The investigations initiated after the events in Vradiyivka shook the country and scared the authorities in July have been terminated.  The promises made after the rape and apparent attempted murder of a young mother, Iryna Krashkova, to carry out a proper investigation and to clean up the law enforcement bodies have not been kept. 

As reported, the young woman was pulled into a taxi by three men and taken to the forest where two of them raped her and beat her, leaving her for dead.  She managed to drag herself to the town and was taken to the hospital.  She named her assailants as two officers of the local police station.  One was arrested, together with the taxi driver who apparently did not take part in the rape, however the other – Yevhen Dryzhak – claimed that he had been on duty that night.

Local residents say that both officers’ actions have been known for a long time, and a huge crowd stormed the police station where they believed Dryzhak was being shielded by colleagues.

There were initially threats of criminal proceedings against the protesters however the level of outrage and publicity over the case far beyond Ukraine led to Dryzhak also being arrested. 

There were also assurances that other unsolved crimes would be investigated.  Such crimes committed over recent years were reported to the Interior Ministry Commission by residents of Vradiyivka and villages nearby.  They are now enraged, having learned that the “investigations” initiated have simply been terminated.

In the village of Zakharovka which is close to Vradiyivka Natalya Mohylyova was murdered.  Both her sons and a daughter-in-law were taken into custody.  They report that the woman went mad after her experiences with the police; one of the sons died in custody and the other is still trying to prove that he was tortured by the police.  He asserts that the police used electric shocks.

Together with other Vradiyivka residents, he wrote a statement back in the summer.  He has just received a response saying that the case has been terminated “for lack of a crime”.  “They destroyed a whole family, but there’s no crime”, Hryhory Mohylyov says angrily.

Vera Pidgurska received the same response. Her son supposedly hanged himself in the police station.  She says that wherever she turns, she finds only lies, and threatens to use extreme measures.

A local civic activist Anatoly Burlaka asserts that the law enforcement bodies are trying to hush everything up.  He explains that after the storming of the police station, a person appeared in Vradiyivka, saying he was a lawyer and offering free legal aid.  He gathered up all the documents and used all kinds of legal tricks to enable the Prosecutor’s Office to terminate the investigations.

From a report here

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