Hij leek er lange tijd mee weg te komen, maar toch is Joeri Krisin gisteren tot vijf jaar gevangenisstraf veroordeeld voor zijn aandeel in de dood van journalist Vjacheslav Vereni tijdens het anti-regeringsprotest op Majdan. Krisins advocaat Tetjana Hnjatjoek voerde tevergeefs aan dat haar client nog had geprobeerd om het leven van de verslaggever van Vesti te redden. Zij kondigde na het vonnis aan dat Krisin in beroep gaat tegen de straf.
Het is niet voor het eerst dat Krisin wordt veroordeeld, want in december 2017 kreeg hij al vier jaar gevangenisstraf. De rechtbank oordeelde destijds dat Krisin minder straf moest krijgen omdat hij de zorg heeft voor twee minderjarige kinderen. Ook zou hij geen strafblad hebben. Dat laatste bleek onjuist en was de aanleiding om de rechtszaak tegen hem nog eens over te doen. Krisin had wel degelijk een strafblad, want hij was al tweemaal veroordeeld wegens 'hooliganisme'.
Krisin ontving op 17 februari 2014 20.000 dollar om een groep van zogenoemde titoesjki - ingehuurde 'spierballen - aan te voeren die aanvallen moesten uitvoeren op actievoerders van Majdan. Een dag later wist een groep van titoesjki met een granaat een taxi tot stoppen te dwingen. De 31-jarige journalist Vereni was de passagier. Hij werd met honkbalknuppels in elkaar geslagen. Ook werd er op hem geschoten. Vereni overleed in een ziekenhuis.
Voor zover nu bekend was het Dzhalal Aljev die het fatale schot loste. Hij is nog altijd op de vlucht. Ook Krisin leek zijn straf lange tijd te ontlopen. Rechters bleken maar al te graag bereid om hem te laten gaan, maar nadat de moord op Vereni zowel nationale als internationale aandacht kreeg, veranderde die opstelling. Met de veroordeling van gisteren tot vijf jaar celstraf tot gevolg.
Bron: Unian
Thug leader finally
jailed for his role in the savage killing of Maidan journalist
16:10, 14 June 2018
Kyiv
113 0
Yuriy Krysin has received a five-year prison sentence for his role in
the fatal attack on Vesti journalist Vyacheslav Veremiy during
Euromaidan after the Kyiv Court of Appeal overturned the original
four-year suspended sentence that had elicited outrage both in Ukraine
and beyond.
Photo from UNIAN
Photo from UNIAN
The court on June 13 noted that there had been nothing, even during the
appeal hearing, to suggest that Krysin repented of his actions, nor was
there any evidence that Krysin had tried to prevent Veremiy’s death from
his injuries.
Viktoria Deineka, the lawyer representing Veremiy’s mother, explained
that this was cited as one of the grounds for the appeal, as well as the
fact that the first court had ignored the gravity of the crime for
which a suspended sentence was insufficient, according to thre Kharkiv
Human Rights Protection Group.
Krysin’s lawyer, Tetyana Hnyatyuk has said that they will be appealing
against the sentence.
The previous suspended sentence of December 22, 2017, was dramatically
different from that demanded by the prosecutor. Both Krysin’s alleged
repentance and his two underage children were given as mitigating
circumstances, while the sentence also claimed that Krysin did not have a
criminal record, which was entirely untrue. He has been twice
convicted of hooliganism and causing bodily injury and Judge Linnyk,
presiding in that trial, also saw fit to ignore his current criminal
record for illegal possession of ammunition.
While Krysin did not fire the shot which killed Veremiy, he was the head
of the "titushky," or hired thugs, who dragged Veremiy from a taxi cab
and beat him savagely.
Krysin had admitted to his part in the events, denying only that he
killed the journalist. The court established that on February 17, 2014,
Krysin agreed to payment of $20,000 for setting up a gang of titushky
to attack Euromaidan activists.
Read alsoAnti-Maidan street thugs coordinator arrested in France -
Gerashchenko
At around 21.00 on February 18, they used a grenade to stop the taxi in
which Veremiy was a passenger, dragged him out of the car and beat him
with baseball bats. It is believed that it was one of the other
titushki, Dzhalal Aliev (also known as Dima Dagestanets, and now in
hiding) who fired the fatal shot when Veremiy tried to flee. The
31-year-old Vesti journalist who was married with a small son died
shortly afterwards in hospital.
The Krysin trial, and specifically the way in which the charges became
so diluted, was given particular attention in the latest Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Report on Ukraine.
They noted with concern “what appears to be special treatment afforded
to the 'titushky,' resulting in denial of justice to victims of their
crimes.”
The details the OHCHR only briefly mentions are certainly damning.
44-year-old Krysin is believed to have been part of a criminal gang with
links to Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, the close associate of ex-President
Viktor Yanukovych, who is suspected of having played a major role in
providing the gangs of titushky who committed numerous crimes against
Maidan activists.
Maria Tomak, Head of the Media Initiative for Human Rights and one of
the journalists who has probed deepest into Krysin’s past and his
connections, once commented that Krysin has a "magic effect" on judges:
once he turned up, they were ready to release him.
That appears to have changed.
Read more on UNIAN:
https://kiev.unian.info/10152335-thug-leader-finally-jailed-for-his-role-in-the-savage-killing-of-maidan-journalist.html
