Green Planet asking president to control inquiry into environmentalist murder in Dnipropetrovsk
Kyiv, August 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Green Planet Party has called on Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych to take under his personal control an investigation into the murder of a member of the party, Dnipropetrovsk ecologist Volodymyr Honcharenko.
"We are urging Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych to take under his personal control this crying case and give relevant instruction to the prosecutor general, the Interior Ministry and the Security Service," the leader of the political force Serhiy Orekhov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
He noted that the party's experts are helping the inquiry and conducting their own investigation into the murder of Honcharenko. "If they started killing us, then we are on the right track and are hitting the right touchy subject that worries the entire population of Ukraine. This is a challenge not only for our party. Shady billions are behind this," the Green Planet leader said.
On August 1, officers of the police department of Soloniansky district of Dnipropetrovsk region received a report from a duty doctor of local hospital that a person with a fracture of the back of the head - environmentalist Volodymyr Honcharenko was brought to the hospital. After the patient received first aid he was brought to an intensive care unit. Honcharenko died in hospital without regaining consciousness on August 3.
Honcharenko's relative said that the ecologist drove into another car on the Kalynivka-Vovnyhy road in the village of Hroza, Soloniansky district, in the evening of August 1. After the collision, two unknown men attacked him and beat him up. After the attackers fled the scene, Honcharenko drove to his cottage and called an ambulance.
On August 2, the police opened a criminal case under part 1 of Article 121 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (intentional infliction of serious bodily injury). The police qualified the case as intentional murder for hooligan motives.
Head of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine Yaroslav Movchan believes that Honcharenko's death was no accident and is directly connected with his environmental activities.