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Court in Odessa detains members of Anti-Maidan movement charged with separatism

A court earlier found them not guilty in organizing mass riots in Odessa in May 2014

ODESSA, September 19. /TASS/. The Kievsky District Court in the Ukrainian city of Odessa has ruled to detain Sergei Dolzenkov and Yevgeny Mefedov, members of the Anti-Maidan movement who were previously found not guilty in a mass riots case, for 60 days.

A court in the city of Chernomorsk, Odessa region, earlier found five members of the Anti-Maidan movement not guilty in organizing mass riots in Odessa in May 2014. Maksim Sakautov, Yevgeny Mefedov, Sergei Dolzhenov, Vladislav Romanyuk and Sergei Korchinsky spent nearly three and a half years in an Odessa pre-trial detention center awaiting the court’s decision.

However, right after the not guilty verdict was announced, the prosecution brought a new charge against Dolzhenkov and Russian citizen Mefedov, so they were taken into custody once again. They are now facing separatism charges under Article 110 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.

May 2, 2014, events in Odessa

On May 2, 2014, radicals of Ukraine’s Right Sector organization (outlawed in Russia) and the so-called Maidan self-defense units burnt up a tent camp on Kulikovo Field where Odessa residents were collecting signatures for a referendum on the country’s federalization and the status of Russian as a state language. People sought shelter in the Trade Union House in downtown Odessa, while the radicals encircled the building and set it ablaze, assaulting those who tried to escape from the fire.

As many as 48 people died and over 200 were injured in the massacre.