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Mother of murdered Ukrainian journalist files lawsuit with ECHR against Kiev

According to the defense attorney, the leading European human rights experts and the best European lawyers will be involved in the case

KIEV, August 7. /TASS/. Valentina Buzina, mother of journalist Oles Buzina who was shot dead in Kiev in 2015, has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), her Defense Attorney Renat Kuzmin said on Monday.

"The Ukrainian authorities’ attempts to bully Valentina Buzina, mother of journalist Oles Buzina murdered in Kiev have forced her to file a lawsuit against Ukraine with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)," he wrote on Facebook.

According to the attorney, "the prosecutor-general, the head of the Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and the president, having conspired previously, refused even to receive her personally, let alone something more. Since they are representatives of the incumbent authorities, "the state should now be liable for their actions to the European Court."

According to Kuzmin, "the leading European human rights experts and the best European lawyers whom the Ukrainian authorities will be able neither to arrest, nor intimidate nor discredit" will be involved in the case against Ukraine in the ECHR.

The attorney earlier stressed that the grounds for filing a lawsuit were Ukraine’s failure to ensure a prompt, complete and independent investigation into Buzina’s murder along with systematic neglect for his mother’s rights and other multiple law breaches in the course of the investigation. He noted in particular that the law enforcement agencies failed to fulfill their obligations in terms of fair investigation, ignored the key version of a contract murder and the Ukrainian law enforcers' possible involvement in that. They also destroyed some particularly important case files and tried to prevent him from taking part in the case as a defense attorney.

Murder and investigation

Oles Buzina, a journalist, writer and TV anchorman shot dead in Kiev on April 16, 2015, was known for his opposition to the authorities in Kiev. In May 2009, he suggested passing a package of laws prohibiting the propaganda of the ideological legacy of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, outlawed in Russia) as a totalitarian Nazi party. In 2014, he published articles and editorials in support of the war-torn Donbass region. Two suspects - nationalists Andrei Medvedko and Denis Polishchuk who deny their guilt - were detained two months after his murder. However, the court later released them on parole.