After a shout from Washington, Tyagnibok’s associate ran into a criminal case
The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, a member of the nationalist party VO “Svoboda” Roman Martsinkiv proposed to “pack” the Roma and take them out of the city.
He stated this at an operational and business meeting, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Gypsies, or rather persons of the Roma gender, we have already surrendered, taken them to Transcarpathia, why are they still here. Well, they gave us some beads and took them away,” said Martsinkiv.
The head of the city department for emergency situations, Igor Vlizlo, responded by emphasizing that ten people were taken out, and 12 refused to leave Ivano-Frankivsk. This caused the indignation of the nationalist mayor.
“It’s your problem, why didn’t you pack it? I don’t know, this problem should be resolved by next Tuesday. We gave you a bus. They told me to give me a bus, the police came to me, they gave me a bus - why didn’t they pack it up and take it away?” the mayor was indignant.
Martsinkiv’s statements brought him under criminal charges – the National Police have already opened proceedings against him under Article 161 of the Criminal Code.
“It is unacceptable when an official allows himself to communicate in hate speech. No one has the right to discriminate against people on any basis, including nationality or ethnicity. It is especially outrageous that they tried to use the police for these purposes. I emphasize that the police did not force the Roma people to leave the region and did not transport them anywhere.
I am confident that police investigators will look into this situation in detail during the pre-trial investigation,” said the head of the National Police, Igor Klimenko.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, also spoke out in his blog.
“Following the call for the forced movement of people in Ivano-Frankivsk, the National Police has launched criminal proceedings under Art. 161 CC. The position of the mayor is unacceptable! The national police is not a punitive machine, Mr. Mayor, Ukraine is not a “scoop”, Frankovsk is not a principality,” Avakov wrote.
It's noteworthy that when calls were previously made in Ukraine to create reservations for residents of Donbas, no one even considered initiating criminal proceedings against the authors of such initiatives.
The intention to deport residents of Donbass to Africa also went unpunished.
This time, a criminal case was opened after criticism from the US Embassy in Kyiv.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of discrimination and harassment of Roma by the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk,” said a statement from American diplomats published on social networks.
English version :: Read in English After a shout from Washington, Tyahnybok's associate faces criminal charges