Who Was Behind Attempt on Vitrenko Not Named
The Monday before last the hearing of the case concerning PSPU (Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine) leader Natalia Vitrenko assasination attempt during her unsuccessful election bid opened in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Court. On October 2 ,1999 on the outskirts of Kryvy Rih near the Palats kultury (Culture Palace) of the Inhuletsk Ore Processing Enterprise two explosions went off in the crowd seeing Natalia Vitrenko off. Some 45 persons were injured by bomb fragments and blast. Not far off the accident site the police detained two suspects, and before long the search for the alleged assassination organizer, 44-year- old businessman Serhiy Ivanchenko, who ran Oleksandr Moroz’s election headquarters in Kryvy Rih, was launched. He was arrested in Moscow only on December 25. The criminal investigation, the files of which take up 27 volumes, lasted for about a year.
Dozens of victims, witnesses, relatives, and journalists gathered in the courthouse for the hearing. However, the cased opened an hour late. The chief guard attributed the delay to heavy traffic and the fact that suspects were caught in the possession of illegal drugs. The presiding Judge Valentyna Kuzmenko reprimanded the police for their sluggishness. However, the police did their best, allowing entry only to people on a list. Thus, many press representatives remained outside the courtroom.
Five defendants were present. Serhiy Ivanchenko, suspected of masterminding the plot, was kept in a separate cage. Investigators consider his younger brother, Volodymyr Ivanchenko, and Andriy Samoilov, who came to Kryvy Rih from Rostov oblast, Russian Federation, to be the perpetrators. Both are Russian citizens, and Andriy Samoilov has past convictions for drugs possession and theft. All three, lawyers say, face life in prison. Two more defendants, driver Volodymyr Afanasiev and butcher Ivan Nedvyha, are charged as accomplices
Worth mentioning is the fact that the defendants’ lawyers spoke little of the court hearing’s possible outcome. Serhiy Ivanchenko’s attorney, Iryna Pomazan, stated only that it has been only a week since she signed the contract, so she has to thoroughly study the case materials. In general, as lawyer she will proceed from the assumption of innocence of her client.
Meanwhile, the suspects’ relatives were on the offensive. Serhiy Ivanchenko’s wife, who came to the court hearing with her little child, stated that her husband is an innocent victim of a big political game. As she put it, during the investigation the defendants were subjected to physical and psychological pressure. And Serhiy Ivanchenko complained about poor prison conditions and humiliating searches. However, the police deny his claims.
Despite their apparent exhaustion, the defendants, especially Mr. Ivanchenko, were quite active at the hearing. The former head of the Oleksandr Moroz election headquarters filed a number of appeals, one upheld by the court, which adjourned the case for a month, December 4, to give the defendants an opportunity to thoroughly study the case materials.
As usual, press attention was captured by Natalia Vitrenko, who arrived from Kyiv for the trial. In a brief interview she stated that she is interested in an unbiased court investigation of this “unprecedented” criminal case. In her opinion, the main thing the court has to do is to name the organizer of the assassination. She does not consider Serhiy Ivanchenko “a person capable of making such decisions... Much bigger fish are involved,” said ambiguously. According to Ms. Vitrenko, her party has already launched an independent investigation of the events in Kryvy Rih. So far there are “three plausible versions.” However, they will be made public only after the verdict has been announced. Incidentally, none of the law enforcement representatives so far can predict when that could happen. Maybe it will take even more time than that needed for preliminary investigation.
