“ It feels like we are turning from victims into suspects”

Irina Kotzyubinskaya, the protagonist of a publication by FACTY and” the first victim” of Euromaydan says that participants of the protests are being put under pressure by secret service and there might come a day, she will have to face it too. In the meantime, another student beaten by Berkut is charged with theft, a photographer whose pictures have been published by Reuters is detained for 60 days.

We published earlier an article about 17-year-old Irina Kotzyubinskaya who was one of the first victims of the Berkut attack against peaceful students’ demonstration in the Independence Square (Maydan Nezalezhnosti) – the young girl was posted missing for several days then.  That article was reposted by multiple Ukrainian and foreign media. Thousands users of social networks shared the story as well. However, not everybody believed in it. There were a lot of statements that Irina’s story is a journalists’ fiction. Some commented in social networks that our newspaper had published a lie. Someone even stated that the girl did not exist.

“Deputy Dean carefully asked me : “So, are you alive? Then proceed to the examinations”.

Below we cite some of the comments we have received (orthography remained unchanged):

“Does anyone really believe in this professionally and artificially composed rot? It’s not only written by some experiences muckraker, it’s written by an ingenious liar… Journalists, you are mercenary scums! No conscience! No principles!”

“This article is a fake, a stream of consciousness by a paid “brain”… The girl most likely shit her panties and swooned or faked a swoon, and that was photographed. No one was beating her, despite all the mess provoked solely by Ukrainian Nazis against Berkut. Berkut was noble with her. For a week the leaders of Maydan were deciding on whether to make a victim of revolution out of her. They decided they would not conceal her dead body, so she “resurrected” as a Maydan zombie”.

“Take a careful look at the photo: where do you see a young girl? It is obviously some middle-aged woman, maybe homeless”.

Photos of 17-y.o. Irina snatched by Berkut during students’ demonstration attack were published in many Ukrainian and foreign media.

However, most readers sympathized with the girl and started discussing the actions of security police. Irina Kotzyubinskaya told FACTY that after the article had been published she received a vast amount of phone calls and questions in social networks. It was so unexpected that the girl even switched off her handy for a while

- I would like to answer those who think I am a ghost “I exist!”, - says Irina. I was born in Vinnitza, being a freshman of Humanitarian Department at National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Honestly, I am tired of proving that what has happened to me is true. I do not understand why some people do not believe it. They probably do not want to accept the obvious. And this is upsetting.

Now I am fully occupied with studies. Revolutions are important, but nobody cancelled midyear examinations. Last week the Deputy Dean, who had taken my story with understanding and even compassion, called me in and said: “ So, you are alive, aren’t you. Then proceed to the midyear examinations.” Since I spent a week in Maydan, I was late with tests in a number of studies. Now I spend nights writing tests and reviews, and pass exams in the daytime.  

— How did your parents react to the article about you?

— Their reaction was normal, no drama. Only my mother asked to be more careful. By the way, there have started repressions towards those who were standing at Maydan with me. I was told they had been visited by officials of State Security Service of Ukraine. They said other protesters were being closely monitored. So to say, one more “wrong” move, and don’t complain then. After such warnings some protestors left Ukraine. Possibly I will be paid a visit soon too.   

“Only twenty victims out of hundreds took legal actions. The rest got intimidated.”

FACTY tried to obtain proof that some victims of Euromaydan protestors beaten by Berkut did leave Ukraine. However, activists of the protests have no such information. Irina Kotzyubinskaya refuses to share the names. The girl is afraid not for herself – she is afraid for her brethren. Nobody knows what is going on with several hundreds of people beaten by Berkut on November 30th. There is not even a complete list of people who were in the Square that night, some are still missing. This information our newspaper obtained from Evgheniy Serdyuk, the leader of recently registered organization “Group of 30^th November”.

- We are looking for all the people who were beaten or arrested that night,” – says Evgheniy. “We know that many were intimidated and threatened, so they are hiding. Out of several hundreds of victims only twenty appealed to court. There is a team of lawyers working with those; we plan on protecting their rights and win justice.

Do you know that law-enforcement authorities falsify victims’ testimonies? For example, when several victims ended up in hospitals, the militia arrived immediately and noted “the statements” of the victims. One statement said that a student had allegedly provoked a fight with Berkut, the other student “badly hurt himself when falling”, yet another one got beaten by other protestors!

Since recently the victims have been invited to the Office of Public Prosecutor to provide detailed evidences. It feels like we are turning from victims into…suspects! Investigators apply psychological pressure; our attorneys with different excuses are being sent away. We wrote a letter to the Prosecutor General and described in detail what was going on during interrogations, we asked the Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka to secure our rights. Fifty Parliament Members signed the letter. Yet we have not heard back.

Meanwhile, strange things started happening to other victims of the “bloody Saturday”. Last weekend Facebook burst with a story that a student, beaten by Berkut and staying in the hospital with severe injuries, was accused of theft!  He allegedly stole a handy from another patient.

— “I was brought to Shevchenkivskiy Regional Police Station of Kyiv together with other beaten people”, - says Vitaliy Kuz’menko, a 22-y.o. student of Kyiv Grinchenko’s University. – “They kept us locked in a police van for an hour. Some people were losing conscious from pain. A young man, who had been beaten on the chest area, could not breathe. Policemen demanded that we explained in writing what we were doing in the Independence Square on the night of November 30^th. Later Parliament Member Andrey Shevchenko approached us and took several injured to Kiev Municipal Emergency Hospital. Doctors there diagnosed me with closed craniocerebral injury, concussion and elbow fracture. It’s been almost two weeks since I am in the neurosurgery department.  

— “Last Saturday I went downstairs in the hospital for a smoke,” – Vitaliy continues. “A man in his midyears approached me and asked if he could borrow my handy. He explained he had run out of money on his phone and his wife urgently needed to make a phone call. I did not mind. Together we went to the sixth floor where, as he stated, his wife was treated. He went in a ward, I stayed in the hall. Five minutes later he came out, returned my phone and thanked me. I went back to my ward in the third floor.


Vitaliy Kuz’menko, a student at one of Kyiv’s Universities: “After they had beaten us in Maydan, they kept us locked in a police van for an hour. Some people were losing conscious from pain…» (Photo courtesy of the author)

Exactly 40 minutes later two militiamen and a stranger showed up in my ward. The stranger  pointed at me “It was him who stole it! Give the handy back!” Militiamen explained that a handy of the stranger’s girlfriend had been stolen. It turned out that there were eye-witnesses who had seen me hanging out in the sixth floor next to the victim’s ward. I was recognized and found by militia for my “distinguishing features”: arm in a cast and… black slippers. Militiamen wanted to examine my personal belongings. “Yes, sure”, - I answered. The militiamen searched through my stuff, but found nothing.

Meanwhile, other patients raised hell – they posted on Facebook and called journalists in. A lawyer came over. Militiamen tried to explain themselves: “He is not a suspect yet; we are just looking into it”. They left pretty fast. 

“FACTY” newspaper requested explanation from the authorities. Olga Bilyk, a speaker for Kyiv City Militia informed us that a criminal case had been opened in relation to the theft incident. Yet, Vitaliy Kuz’menko was not a suspect in the case.

“My son’s only fault is that he was taking pictures of the beating in Maydan”.

It must be a strange coincident that last Monday another protestor was accused of handy theft. It was Oleh Panas, a photographer from Lviv who was in Maydan on the night of November 30^th and who made pictures of students’ beating by Berkut.

-  Oleg went downtown for personal reasons and got appproched by three strangers dressed as civilians, - says Igor Panas, the father of the arrested photographer. – They stated that Oleh had stolen a handy, tied his hands and put him a blue car. Oleh was held in a regional militia office for almost 24 hours, and then he was transported from Lviv to Kyiv.


Oleh Panas, a photographer from Lviv, is now in Pretrial Detention Unit. He was at Maydan on the night of November 30^th and took pictures of the events. He also got beaten by Berkut.

On Tuesday, Shevchenkivs’kyi District Court arraigned Oleh Panas of upheaval organization in front of Kyiv City Administration, with further 60 days of detention as a punishment measure. Attorney at law Tatyana Kozachenko complained that she was not allowed to defend Oleh in court, she was not even allowed to meet with him. The lawyer spent two days at the door of Kyiv Pretrial Detention Unit demanding a meeting with her client.  

— “Oleg was not even in Kyiv on December 1^st!” – says his father. “As I am explained, my son is only guilty of taking pictures at Maydan on November 30^th, and then being among the first who shared pictures in the web. Later his pictures were published by Reuters. By the way, that night Oleh was also beaten by Berkut, his camera was broken…” 

Two days ago the protestors declared they would be staying in Maydan until the offenders of peaceful protests of November 30^th were punished.

Irina Koprovskaya, “FACTY”

13.12.2013

Translated by Valeria K.
http://fakty.ua/173665-sozdaetsya-vpechatlenie-chto-iz-nas-postradavshih-pytayutsya-sdelat-podozrevaemyh