Rally on Maidan: protesters demand real prison term for journalist Veremii’s murderer Krysin. PHOTOS+VIDEO

The people who gathered on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti in downtown Kyiv on Dec. 25 demanded just punishment of Yurii Krysin who received the suspended term for involvement in the murder of journalist Viacheslav Veremii.

As reported by a correspondent for Censor.NET, about 200 people gathered on Kyiv’s main square.

The rally was attended by journalists, human rights activists, members of non-governmental organizations. Lawyers in Viacheslav Veremii’s case Viktoria Deineka and Yevhenia Zakrevska as well as Roman Maselko, the lawyer of the families of protesters killed on the Maidan in 2014 were also among the rally participants.

Protest organizer Masi Nayyem said the judicial system itself which had undergone no changes over the past four years signed its own death sentence by passing the lenient verdict to Krysin. He said that Krysin got such a mild sentence due to the protection of the now officials.

 See more: Individual charged with murder of journalist Veremii gets two-year suspended sentence. PHOTOS+VIDEO

Viacheslav Veremii’s mother

 

Lawyers Yevhenia Zakrevska and Viktoria Deineka

Human rights activist Maria Tomak

Veremii’s widow Svitlana Kyrylash

Rally organizer Masi Nayyem

Human rights activist Maria Tomak

Viacheslav Veremii’s mother Yekateryna

Lawyer Viktoria Deineka

Roman Maselko, the lawyer of relatives of the Heroes of Heavenly Hundred

Svitlana Kyrylash

Yevhenia Zakrevska

As reported, Veremii was killed on the night of Feb. 19, 2014. He was riding home by a taxi when spotted several armed individuals wearing military uniforms and masks (hired thugs often referred to as titushky – Ed.) at the corner of Volodymyrska and Velyka Zhytomyrska streets. Titushky started crashing the taxi, pulled the driver and the passengers out after the journalist tried to make a picture of them. The driver and another passenger managed to escape after being beaten while Veremii was severely beaten, shot at and received a bullet in the back. He was taken to the intensive care unit but later died during surgery on Feb. 19 over blood loss and severe injuries.

On Sept. 18, 2015, PGO’s Special Investigations Directorate Chief Serhii Horbatiuk said that Veremii was murdered by Jalal Aliyev. According to unconfirmed reports, the murderer joined the militants of the self-styled "Donetsk People’s Republic" and was killed in Horlivka in July 2015.

On Dec. 22, 2017, the Shevchenkivskyi district court of Kyiv sentenced Yurii Krysin to a two-year suspended sentence for leading a group of individuals who attacked the journalist. He faces a four-year prison term in case of breaching probation conditions.