Former Berkut officer sentenced to eight years in prison, reports Prosecutor General
Berkut on the Maidan (Photo:Yuri Timofeyev/www.flickr.com)
The Pecherskyy District Court of Kyiv sentenced a former member of the Kharkiv special police battalion, known as Berkut, to eight years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold positions in law enforcement bodies for three years, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Telegram on Dec. 5.
The convict has been wanted since 2015. The local prosecutor’s office said that his case was considered in the form of a special court proceeding (in absentia) and this is the first verdict in Maidan cases regarding this procedure.
According to the investigation, on Dec. 1, 2013, the convict brutally beat an activist on Bankova Street near the Presidential Administration in Kyiv. The activist received numerous injuries, although he did not break any laws during the attack. After the beating, the activist was placed on the ground – his hands were handcuffed behind his back.
Several dozen people, now known in Ukraine as the Heavenly Hundred, were killed by sniper bullets during a violent confrontation in the center of Kyiv on Feb. 18-21, 2014. Many protesters were wounded and injured in varying degrees of severity.
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