Activists, police clash outside Kyiv's court / Snap from video

Clashes between activists and police officers have been reported outside Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky District Court amid the ruling to extend the arrest of former Donbas war volunteer and musician AKA 'Riffmaster' Andrii Antonenko, a suspect in the murder case of journalist Pavel Sheremet.

Read alsoSheremet case: Ex-Donbas war volunteer, musician Antonenko's arrest extended (Photos)Witnesses and journalists said dozens of people had come to the court building. Later, clashes broke out between them and the police officers. According to eyewitnesses, the police used tear gas, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Today, October 21, the court ruled to extend the preventive measures against Antonenko and army volunteer and pediatric surgeon Yulia Kuzmenko, as well as the obligations laid on nurse with a paratrooper unit Yana Duhar until December 19 (she is banned from communicating with witnesses in the high-profile case and must be present when summoned by investigators or prosecutors).

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Sheremet murder case: Details

  • The journalist was assassinated in a car blast in the center of Kyiv on the morning of July 20, 2016.
  • On December 12, 2019, police said they suspected five persons of complicity in the crime: former Donbas war volunteer and musician Andrii Antonenko, army volunteer and pediatric surgeon Yulia Kuzmenko (nom de guerre "Lysa," or "Fox"), nurse with a paratrooper unit Yana Duhar, and a family couple of army volunteers Inna Hryshchenko ("Puma"), and Vladyslav Hryshchenko ("Bucha"). Law enforcers claim that the goal of Sheremet's assassination was to destabilize the social and political situation in Ukraine. Antonenko, Kuzmenko and Duhar were notified of suspicion on December 12, 2019.
  • Ukrainian investigative journalists with the Slidstvo.info project said they had found the forensic analysis report used in the probe into the murder of Sheremet far from being unambiguous, while evidence presented by the police was not convincing. What is more, many Ukrainian activists consider the proof collected by the investigators to be insufficient.
  • On August 25, all three defendants demanded in court that their case be heard by the jury. Holub, the chair of the panel of judges, said that since they all were facing life imprisonment, the Criminal Code allows such cases to be heard by a jury, which consists of two professional judges and three members of the jury.
  • On September 28, the prosecutor in the Sheremet case read out the indictment to Antonenko, Kuzmenko and Duhar in Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky district court.
  • On the same day, the prosecutor read out the indictment in the case.