In Kyiv, a lawyer for ex-Berkut members said that the court refused to hear Georgian witnesses to the shootings on the Maidan “after a call from the AP”
During today's hearing, the Svyatoshinsky Court in Kyiv, in its consideration of the case concerning the involvement of Berkut officers in the shooting of civilians during the Maidan protests, refused to hear a number of witnesses following phone calls from the Ukrainian presidential administration, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This was announced on his Facebook page by the lawyer for the former Berkut officers, Alexander Goroshinsky.
“The defense of Berkut employees petitioned the court to question two more witnesses – Georgian citizens Georgiy Bezhitashvili and Tsezari Badzhaladze. These individuals have additional information about the leaders of sniper groups on the Maidan and are ready to name the representatives of the current Ukrainian government who were behind the executions. Obviously, on the eve of the elections, no one needs these names to be heard. According to our information, calls from the Administration of the President of Ukraine became an additional incentive for refusal. Sergei Gorbatyuk also recently spoke about sabotage of the investigation into the shootings on the Maidan by the AP,” he said.
Goroshinsky also stated that witnesses were ready to confirm in court the involvement in the work of snipers of representatives of the current government - Parubiy, Pashinsky and Parasyuk, who allegedly gave the order on the morning of February 20, 2014 “to open fire on police officers and protesters in order to create panic and chaos "
According to the lawyer, the defense of the “ex-Berkut members” proposed that the court hear the testimony of four Georgian witnesses: Nergadze Koba, Alexander Revazishvili, Georgiy Bezhitashvili and Tsezari Badzhaladze. He also announced his intention to “insist on the interrogation of the most important witnesses for this case.”
Previously, ex-Berkut members who were in pre-trial detention center wrote letters to Europe with a request to create an international commission to investigate crimes on the Maidan. They asked to pay attention to a number of investigations by foreign journalists, in which Georgian citizens admit that representatives of the current government, with the assistance of ex-President of Georgia Saakashvili, brought several groups of snipers in 2014 to shoot people on the Maidan.
As PolitNavigator previously reported, in December 2017, former Berkut officers currently in pretrial detention wrote letters to Europe requesting the creation of an international commission to investigate the crimes on the Maidan, and also calling for attention to the involvement of Georgian snipers in the bloody events. In turn, the former Berkut officers' lawyers asked the court to question two Georgian citizens, Tristan Tsitelashvili and Koba Negradze, who expressed their willingness to tell the truth about the work of Georgian snipers.
In March 2018, at the request of the defense of ex-Berkut members, the Svyatoshinsky court sent a request to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine to organize the interrogation of Nergadze and Revazishvili in the order of international legal assistance.
Earlier, the Italian “Canale 5”, part of the Mediaset S. pA media holding of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, showed the film “Ukraine: Hidden Truths” by Italian war correspondent Gian Mikalessin. He met with three Georgian citizens Nergadze, Revazishvili and Kvarateskelia, who claim that they are allegedly the executors of orders to execute both Maidan participants and Berkut employees.