The State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (SBI) has completed the investigation into the shooting of the Heavenly Hundred. This is a large-scale case against the former state leadership for organizing the dispersal and shooting of protesters on February 18-20, 2014. The indictment was sent to the court.
Fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych and the entire power bloc at the time will appear before the court. In addition to the former head of state, members of the criminal group – former high-ranking officials – are accused of committing these crimes. It is about the Minister of Internal Affairs together with his deputy, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine together with his first deputy, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, the commander of the internal forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the head of the State Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the city of Kyiv, the head of the public security police, as well as the commander of the Berkut special unit.
In February 2014, the criminal authorities tried to stop the uprising of Ukrainians in the struggle for their freedom and free pro-European choice.
The actions of Yanukovych and former heads of law enforcement agencies led to mass casualties among Ukrainians who fought for the country’s European future. The deaths of peaceful protesters in the center of Kyiv on February 18, 19, and 20, 2014, changed the history of Ukraine to “before” and “after,” and the courage of these heroes became an example of courage for freedom fighters on the entire European continent.
“It was established that on February 18-20, 2014, they gave orders and made appropriate decisions regarding the use of special means, military equipment, and firearms by law enforcement officers without appropriate grounds and in violation of the current legislation for forceful resistance and dispersal of demonstrators in the center of the capital and the termination of protest actions”, the SBI states.
Officials also organized an assault on the Maidan under the guise of an “anti-terrorist operation” and ordered the shooting of protesters on the morning of February 20. This was done in excess of power, official powers, without any legal grounds, added the State Bureau of Investigation.
“To avoid responsibility, the former officials fled Ukraine, so the pre-trial investigation was carried out according to a special procedure, and the investigating judge chose a preventive measure in the form of detention in relation to them,” the SBI said.
The criminal proceedings include 1,019 episodes of criminal obstruction of protests and include 1,878 volumes of collected materials. Yanukovych and the leaders of the power bloc are accused of illegally obstructing the holding of meetings, rallies, marches, and demonstrations, exceeding authority, intentional murders and attempted murders, causing intentional grievous bodily harm, as well as organizing a terrorist act.
The SBI says that after the collapse of the USSR, the suspects served in the armed forces of Russia, had citizenship and access to military and state secrets of the Russian Federation, and acted in the interests of the aggressor state.
“Considering the fact that some of the accused are hiding in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the latter will be taken into custody and brought to court immediately after the liberation of these territories by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the SBI concluded.
The maximum penalty for these crimes is life imprisonment. “Crimes against the foundations of National Security do not have a statute of limitations. All the more so when it comes to tragic events that became the foundation of the country’s recent history,” the SBI emphasized.
