Police apprehend suspect in murder of prominent Ukrainian historian Shytiuk. PHOTOS
A 25-year-old resident of the Mykolaiv’s greater area, who is suspected of stabbing prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shytiuk to death on Sept. 1, was detained by operatives of the local criminal investigation department on Sept. 2.
As reported by Censor.NET, the National Police in the Mykolaiv region said in a statement that they had carried out a range of measures including examination of CCTV footage captured by cameras installed on the buildings next to the house where the murder was committed.
The investigators managed to identify supposed perpetrator of the murder and established his whereabouts. The suspect appeared to be a resident of the Mykolaiv’s greater area, who was eventually apprehended by the police officers at a bus stop as he was heading for the city of Mykolaiv.
The 25-year-old was charged of committing a crime punishable by article 208 of Ukraine’s Criminal Procedure Code. He confessed that he stabbed Shytiuk to death after they had a personal quarrel. He faces 15 years in prison or life sentence.
As reported by Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, Shytiuk was found dead in an apartment in his home city of Mykolaiv on Sept. 1. His body bore signs of violence, including stab wounds.
Shytiuk was known for his works on the Holodomor famine that killed millions in Ukraine in the early 1930s.
The Holodomor took place in 1932-33 as Soviet authorities forced peasants in Ukraine to join collective farms by requisitioning their grain and other foodstuffs.
Historians say the seizure of the 1932 crop in Ukraine by Soviet authorities was the main cause of the famine.
Ukraine and about a dozen other countries have recognized the famine as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Moscow has long denied any systematic effort to target Ukrainians, arguing that a poor harvest at the time wiped out many in other parts of the then-Soviet Union.
The Day of Remembrance for the victims of the famine is marked in Ukraine every year on the fourth Saturday of November.
