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The Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv on Wednesday extended until July 29, 2020, the term of pretrial investigation in the case of the murder of Kherson-based activist Kateryna Handziuk.
That’s according to Handziuk family’s lawyer Yevhenia Zakrevska.
“The prosecutor’s petition had been granted. The investigation into Katia’s case where Manger and Levin are being charged was extended to July 29, 2020,” the lawyer wrote on Facebook.
It should be noted that the hearing on the petition began yesterday, March 24.
The defense team’s appeal was overruled.
As UNIAN reported earlier, UNIAN memo. Kherson activist, advisor to the Mayor of Kherson and acting manager of affairs at Kherson City Council’s executive committee Kateryna Handziuk, 33, on July 31, 2018, survived an acid attack.
She suffered burns to more than 35% of her body and underwent 11 operations in Kyiv. Handziuk died on November 4, 2018. The immediate cause of her death was a severed blood clot resulting from the acid attack. Police originally qualified the attack as an attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty, then its status was changed to completed murder.
Read alsoHandziuk murder: Raids underway in Kherson region in deadly acid attack probe
Six suspects were detained, one of whom, Mykola Novikov, was later released from custody as charges against him had been dropped. On May 7, 2019, the Prosecutor General’s Office sent an indictment against five defendants in the case of the murder: Mykyta Hrabchuk, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, Serhiy Torbin, and Viktor Horbunov.
On June 6, the court announced their sentences. Torbin, the organizer of the murder, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison. Hrabchuk, the actual perpetrator of the crime, was sentenced to six years in prison. Accused of aiding, Vasyanovych and Horbunov were sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively; accomplice Vishnevsky’s sentence is four years’ imprisonment.
Oleksiy Levin, who has a criminal record, as well as Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and Ihor Pavlovsky, who was an assistant to MP Mykola Palamarchuk, are also targeted in the Handziuk murder case. Moreover, public activists believe that former Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Andriy Gordeev and former Deputy Chairman of Kherson Regional State Administration Yevhen Ryshchuk were involved in the crime.
Read alsoUkraine’s PGO chief on Handziuk murder: Prosecutors didn’t want to probe case
On January 27, Levin was put into custody in Bulgaria’s Burgas for a 40-day term after being detained on January 24. On February 22, the court of the city of Burgas (Bulgaria) ruled to extradite Levin to Ukraine. He was extradited on March 16 and is now being held in custody.
