Kyiv's Dniprovsky District Court has extended the arrest of Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and his accomplice Oleksiy Levin, who are accused of ordering and organizing the murder of local activist Kateryna Handziuk.
The respective motion filed by prosecutors was satisfied by judge of the court Yulia Ivanina, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
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"To extend the measure of restraint in the form of arrest of Oleksiy Levin and Vladyslav Manger for a period of 60 days – until February 1, 2021 – without determining the amount of bail," the court's ruling said.
It can be appealed to Kyiv's Court of Appeals within seven days from the date of its announcement.
Manger and Levin will be remanded in custody until at least February 1, 2021.
Handziuk case
- 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.
- 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, 2019, 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.
- On April 27, 2020, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine reported it had completed its pretrial investigation into the acid attack on Kherson activist Kateryna Handziuk and materials of the case would be forwarded to court. As per the investigation, Chairman of Kherson Regional Council Vladyslav Manger and Oleksiy Levin, an aide to a member of the same council, are suspected of ordering the crime.
- Manger and Levin are charged with offenses under Part 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 28, and Part 2 of Article 121 of the Criminal Code ("intentional grievous bodily harm in a manner bearing the nature of special torment and resulting in the death of the victim").
