The investigation into the circumstances of the death of Ukrainian politician Vyacheslav Chornovil in 1999 continues, although “some of the defendants are no longer alive, and there is not much material,” the Interior Ministry said.
A comprehensive forensic, transport-traceological and autotechnical examination concluded that the leader of the People’s Rukha of Ukraine Vyacheslav Chornovil was fatally injured as a result of an accident in March 1999, there is no confirmation of other versions of death yet. Yaroslav Trakalo, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said about this. “Ukrainian Truth”.
Trakalo said that the examination, which lasted almost two years, from January 2017 to October 2018, established that the injuries that were discovered during the forensic medical examination of Chornovil’s body and during the examination of the remains during exhumation “formed as a result of injury to the passenger who was in the passenger compartment of the vehicle when the car collides with an obstacle. “
Thus, the examination does not confirm the theory that Chornovil was fatally injured after the road accident, including the version of damage with brass knuckles, although it does not completely exclude it.
Trakalo noted that during the pre-trial investigation, truck driver Vladimir Kudelya was repeatedly questioned about the circumstances of the accident. However, in the future he refused to testify, explaining that he had previously reported all the circumstances of the incident and could not add anything new.
Now, according to Trakalo, interrogations of forensic experts are underway, who carried out examinations in criminal proceedings.
The representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stressed that the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings continues, the final decision has not been made.
“The investigation of this case is not easy, given the considerable period of time that has passed since the tragedy. Some of the defendants are no longer alive, so the investigators are working with the material that is, and, unfortunately, there is actually not much of it. But, of course, everyone is interested in the truth in this case being established, “Trakalo said.
Vyacheslav Chornovil was born in the village of Erki (now – Cherkasy region) on December 24, 1937. He headed the “People’s Movement of Ukraine”. In 1991 he was a presidential candidate, lost to Leonid Kravchuk, receiving 23.27% of the vote. He was a Soviet dissident, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national democratic liberation movement in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Politician died on March 25, 1999 in a car accident near Kiev… The driver of the politician Yevgeny Pavlov also died in an accident. Returning to Kiev from Kirovograd, on the fifth kilometer of the Borispol – Zolotonosha highway, Toyota Chornovila collided with a loaded grain KamAZ, which was turning around on the road.
There was also the politician’s press secretary Dmitry Ponamarchuk in the car; at the time of the collision, he was dozing in the back seat. Ponamarchuk survived, but was seriously injured. Kudel’s truck driver and two of his passengers were not injured.
Immediately after the death of the politician, ex-Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko announced that the death of Chornovil was an accident. Companions of the deceased politician called the incident a political murder, pointed to an ineffective investigation, refusal to question witnesses and destruction of documents. In the 2000s, the investigation was resumed several times, but the version of the accident was never refuted. Chornovil’s death was never investigated as a murder.
In 2014, the Boryspil City District Court of the Kiev Region recognized the accident as an ordinary road accident and closed the case against the KamAZ driver after the statute of limitations had expired. Chornovil’s family appealed and won.
In August 2014 Pthe rokuratora resumed investigation of the death of Chornovil.
In February 2017, over 300 MPs asked the then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko take personal control of the investigation into the murder of Chornovil, said Viktor Krivenko, deputy head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, deputy head of the People’s Ruku.
Ponamarchuk, which the was in the same car with Draft that day and was seriously injured in interview to the chief editor of the Internet edition “GORDON” Ales Batsman suggested that the car accident was murder. “For 18 years nothing else has been proven, so I say that this is a murder. Unless proven otherwise, there was an accidental traffic accident, “he said.
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