Dniprogas case: round two

Dnipropetrovsk — The case of the gas explosion in Dnipropetrovsk in 2007, in which a high-rise residential building on Mandrykivska St. 127 was destroyed and 23 people, including 13 children perished, will be heard in Zaporizhia. After the Supreme Court of Ukraine granted a cassational appeal on the eve of the elections, the criminal case, which was annuled due to the amnesty, was returned to the court of first instance.

The first hearing is set for December 8. It will be held in the regional Palace of Culture because of the large quantity of the witnesses and plaintiffs — over 400 people were injured during the incident. According to the Prosecutor General’s office the prosecuting party will be presented by the representatives of Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk prosecutor’s offices. However, strangely enough the former managers of the Dniprogas will be held criminally responsible according to article 367, part 2, for “negligence.” This is the same article for which they received the amnesty.

The press service of the public prosecutor’s office in Dnipropetrovsk region confirmed this information. Dmytro Popovsky, the lawyer of the victims, believes that the criminal case does not have any legal prospects, as the amnesty law, passed by Verkhovna Rada in 2008 and signed by the then President Viktor Yushchenko, was not abrogated.

However, according to the lawyer, the decision on the requalification of the case to other, graver articles can be made as a result of the judicial investigation or the plaintiff’s claim. In any case, Popovsky believes that the consideration of this criminal case will not last long as it is difficult for the majority of those injured to travel hundreds of kilometers to hearings. Some problems may also arise due to the fact that one of the defendants allegedly works in Moscow. Almost two years have passed since the amnesty. But the people who lived in the affected building, still want to see just retribution for that terrible gas explosion.