Chief suspect in murder of journalist Veremiy reported killed

Anonymous ‘underground fighters’ in Donbas claim to have “eliminated” one of the men suspected of killing Kyiv journalist Viacheslav Veremiy.  The information was reported by Volodymyr Ruban who is in charge of the Centre for the Exchange of Prisoners. 

The message, written in Russian, says that Dzhalal Aliev, nicknamed Dima Dagestanets, who the authors call “the murderer of ‘Vesti’ journalist Viacheslav Veremiy” was shot dead and his body thrown to be eaten by dogs in a field between Horlivka and Zaitsevo.  He was allegedly killed, together with another man named only as Kravchenko.  Ruban gives the message “without comment” and it is not possible to verify the information.

The only thing that can be confirmed is it is Aliev who is suspected of having fired the shot which killed Veremiy.

Viacheslav Veremiy, who was married with a four-year-old son, had only just returned to work after being injured on Hrushevsky St a month earlier and partially losing sight in one eye. He was returning home from work, together with a colleague, at 1 a.m. the night after one of the two bloodiest days of Euromaidan.  The taxi stopped at traffic lights and some masked ‘titushki’ or government-paid thugs with batons and weapons began shaking the car and hurling Molotov cocktails into it.. The men were dragged and badly beaten, however Veremiy was killed by a single bullet shot to the heart. 

One man – Yury Krysyn, the 41-year-old head of a security firm, is facing charges of beating Veremiy, but not of the actual killing.  He was arrested and detained quite early, but the first released on house arrest, and then on Oct 15 released altogether, although bound by an undertaking not to leave their home city.

Krysyn is charged with “hooliganism by a group involving the inflicting of bodily injuries”.  Under this he faces up to 5 years imprisonment.  Vitaly Titych who is representing Veremiy’s mother suspects that Krysin could be implicated in other crimes against EuroMaidan supporters, and is convinced that the charges should be changed. ‘Hooliganism’ does not encompass crucial features of the case, namely, the level of violence and the fact that it was for money.

Titushki were widely deployed under the regime of Viktor Yanukovych, especially during Euromaidan, beating up journalists and activists, though the murder of Veremiy was one of the bloodiest attacks. 

Aliev disappeared before the more serious charges could be laid against him and was placed on the wanted list.

Halya Coynash