Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Solving Chornovol assault has become a game of poker... and links between perp and politicos

This from United States Mission to the OSCE, delivered today by Ambassador Daniel B. Baer, in his "Statement on Events in Ukraine", 


"....The United States, like many other countries, was deeply dismayed to learn of the violent beating of Ukrainian activist and journalist Tatiana Chornovol in the early morning of December 25. A few hours earlier, Chornovol, who has reported critically on alleged government misuse of state resources, had posted on her blog photos of a residence alleged to belong to a member of the Yanukovich government. The photographs of Chornovol’s bloodied and battered face after she was left in a ditch by her assailants are a haunting reminder of the work still before us to prevent future abuses in the OSCE space.

"Chornovol’s beating appears to be part of an emerging pattern of retribution against those who have organized, participated in, or reported sympathetically on the Euromaidan protests in exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly. One journalist tweeted poignantly on Christmas Day: “The scary thing [about] an assault on Chornovol [is] that every journalist working in Ukraine now could easily imagine himself in her place, me included.”

Will the case ever be fully solved? Will those who commissioned it ever be brought to justice?
Because of the total mistrust of law enforcement agencies, most Ukrainians have little faith that they will. Nevertheless, it seems that the authorities have at last realised the magnitude of the resonance of this crime.

Even the dashboard camera recordings from Chornovol's vehicle leaked onto YouTube by Chornovol's family and their opposition party aids have been edited - there are several short portions clipped out. This is unfortunate..

These portions may well contain further evidence that could be produced if law enforcement agencies present a falsified version of events in any trial of the accused. E.g. the portions of video held back may contain details of a second vehicle that was allegedly involved. The presence of a second vehicle would make any case of conspiracy far more credible and could provide further clues as to the identity of the commissioners of the crime..

The highway along which Chornovol's vehicle was chased and forced off the road has many video surveillance cameras posted along it. She may have passed a dozen of these. Some reports claim that vehicles can be continuously tracked along this stretch of highway, so investigators will be checking video footage...but what will they produce in court?

Chornovol herself may provide vital evidence. Her husband today stated that she can ID one of her assailants..

There is a game of poker going on, with both sides keeping several cards very close to their chests in order to blacken opponents and minimise political damage.

When Tetyana Chornovol does eventually return to health she will almost certainly continue her work investigating wrongdoing by the president and those in the cabinet...and will expose those evil men who tried to kill her.

p.s. The diabolical links between career criminals and Ukrainian politicians are well illustrated by this entire case.

There are many unofficial reports that the fifth suspect is a  Roman Aleksandrovych Zalyubovsky .

He is about 34 years of age, was born, and lives in Dniprodzerzhinsk.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs' official statements, he works as a security guard. According to another of the suspects, he looked like a boxer..

In 2010, Zalyubovsky  became founder and director of a real estate company called "World-Bud"- in reality he was probably only the 'front man'.

Before him the owner of the company was Oleh Netrebko, who was the founder of the Ukrainian Horting (martial arts) Federation .  Netrebko also owns a chain of other companies related to real estate, and other businesses in the Dnipropetrovsk region, farms etc.

In 2006 Netrebko was a candidate for Natalia Vitrenko's 'Rus' party.

Netrebko was according to some reports, also a criminal authority in the region, a.k.a. "Netrik." and collaborated with another crime boss who featured heavily in my blogs several years ago, the late Maksym [a.k.a. Mad Max] Kurochkin. [Oh, happy days..]

Netrebko was an aid to the former PoR parliamentary deputy Valeriya Matyukha. She had been called as a witness in investigation of the murder of one Roman Yerokhin [who also featured in 'ForeignNotes' a few years ago.]

Organised crime investigator Yerohkin had been delving into money laundering operations in Eastern Ukraine - some of it allegedly linked to current interior minister Zaharchenko.

Matyukha started her career as a secretary in the company of Olena Lukash - who is now the current Minister of Justice of Ukraine....

How bad can it get? This is why YevroMaidan's favourite chant is "Bandu Het!" [Out with the criminal gang] They know what what they want...

[More here]

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