Trial in Sheremet case suspended as two defendants serve in army
The court in the case of the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet suspended the trial until the demobilization of one of the accused, Yana Dugar.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the UP.
The defense of the defendants asked to stop the case, as two of the defendants, Yana Dugar and Andrii Antonenko, serve in the army. Dugar is mobilized, while Antonenko serves under contract.
Combat medic Dugar clarified that she has a leadership position and is in charge of evacuating soldiers from the battlefield. Antonenko explained that he was fighting in one of the most important areas.
The third defendant, Yuliia Kuzmenko, said that she also drove out for the frontline regions as a doctor.
The victims - Sheremet's mother and daughter, as well as UP's founding editor Olena Prytula - supported the postponement. Their lawyer also serves in the Armed Forces, so the victims have previously asked for the trial to be suspended until the end of the war.
In the summer of 2023, the trial in Sheremet's case, which had been going on for almost 3 years, was restarted due to the mobilization of one of the jurors and the departure of another juror abroad.
We remind you that Pavlo Sheremet died on the morning of July 20, 2016, as a result of a car explosion.
Sheremet is a native of Belarus. He worked on television in Belarus and Russia, and in the 1990s and 2000s he was the head of the Belarusian bureau and the head of the special information projects department at ORT, then Channel One. For the past five years, he has lived in Kyiv, worked for the online publication Ukrayinska Pravda, and was a presenter on Vesti radio. Sheremet was also one of the founders of the Belarusian Partisan publication.
On December 12, 2019, police detained three suspects in the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet. They are military nurse Yana Dugar, volunteer Yuliia Kuzmenko, and ATO veteran Andrii Antonenko. Investigators believe that the suspects' motive is an attempt to destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine. All of them were notified of suspicion and detention was chosen as a measure of restraint. Andrii Antonenko was the longest in the pre-trial detention center, and the other two later had their preventive measure changed to a more mitigating one.
On April 30, 2021, the court released musician Andrii Antonenko, accused of the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet, from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest. He was also ordered to wear an electronic bracelet.
