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Ukrainian President to supervise probe into Nikolayev region crime which caused riots

Riots broke out in the Vradiyevka district center last night because of the policemen's impunity

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, July 2 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich will supervise the probe into the rape of a young woman by police officers, the presidential press service reported on Tuesday.

Riots broke out in the Vradiyevka district center last night because of the policemen's impunity.

Yanukovich ordered Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka to confer with the leadership of the Security Council and the Interior Ministry "to examine all the facts of involvement of law-enforcement personnel in illegal actions for evaluating the events, further response and measures to be taken in the future."

On Tuesday, Pshonka fired Vradiyevka district prosecutor Sergei Mochalko for "improper performance of his duties in the supervision over lawfulness during an investigation by interior bodies." The local and regional police chiefs were fired as well.

On June 26, three men forced Vradiyevka resident Irina Krashkova, 29, into a car, beat her up and raped. The victim is in the neurosurgery department of the town of Nikolayev. She suffered several skull fractures, cuts and bruises. Despite two surgeries performed on her, she remains in serious condition.

On Monday, a court sanctioned the arrest of two suspects. One of them, a police officer and a relative of a prosecutor from Nikolayev was set free. The local residents, indignant at the outrage committed by police and their impunity, staged a protest action and stormed and seized the local police station on Monday night.

A commission of the Interior Ministry's central office led by chief of the main headquarters Vladimir Berezan arrived Vradiyevka. "The Interior Ministry is interested in objective and impartial review of all the circumstances of the events and urges people not to yield to the provocations of the politicians who incite to illegal actions," the police said in a report. Criminal proceedings were opened over attack on the Vradiyevo police department. The local mass media said several persons had been injured during the night clash.

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