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Kiev court refuses to place Buzina’s killer in hospital for psychiatric examination

On May 23, the Pechersky district court cancelled a measure of restraint in the form of a personal commitment to comply with a number of the court’s demands for Andrei Medvedko

KIEV, June 5 /TASS/. Kiev’s Pechersky district court has turned down the request of prosecutors to put Andrei Medvedko charged with murdering Ukrainian journalist and writer Oles Buzina on April 16, 2015 to hospital for psychiatric examination.

"The investigating judge ruled to turn down the prosecutors’ request to place the defendant in the Kiev judicial center of psychiatric examinations for the checkup," the Ukrainian publication NBN quoted the judge as saying on Saturday.

On May 23, the Pechersky district court cancelled a measure of restraint in the form of a personal commitment to comply with a number of the court’s demands for Medvedko. In fact, he is a free person now but will preserve his status of a defendant until June 19 when the investigation is supposed to be over. The prosecutors had demanded extending the measure of restraint for another two months during which they wanted to finish the investigation. However, the court satisfied the request of Medvedko’s lawyers.

Oles Buzina was a Ukrainian journalist, writer and TV presenter. He was the editor-in-chief of the Segodnya (Today) newspaper but quitted his post because of censorship. According to the Interior Ministry, the killers made five shots at Buzina. Two suspects, Andrei Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk were detained two months later. The court put them under house arrest.