Results of forensic examination of Odessa massacre victims to be made public

KIEV, September 15. /TASS/. The Administrative Court of Appeal of the Odessa Region in southern Ukraine has upheld the ruling by the first instance court obligating the authorities to make public the cause of death of some 50 people in last year’s massacre in the city’s Trade Unions House, local media reported Tuesday.

In May 2015, the Odessa district administrative court, after a months-long legal battle, granted the public’s demand that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination make the data public. But the ruling was appealed, and the appeal was considered Tuesday.

Journalists of the "May 2 Group" Leonid Shtekel and Sergey Dibrov, conducting an independent investigation of last May’s tragedy, asked the court to rule to make public the forensic examination’s results.

For a few months, they were trying to get access to data stored in the archives of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination and capable of giving an answer to the question what caused people to die in May last year. But investigators have steadfastly refused to provide access to them citing secrecy of investigation.

"The Odessa administrative court of appeal has upheld the ruling of the first instance on the lawsuit of Shtekel and Dibrov, in line with which journalists may get copies of forensic experts’ conclusions on the ‘May 2 case’," Odessa publication Dumskaya wrote after Tuesday’s hearing.

The tragedy at the Odessa House of Trade Unions occurred on May 2, 2014. A sign-up campaign in support of a referendum turned into clashes between nationalist activists of the Right Sector and the Maidan self-defense groups on the one side and federalization supporters on the other side. The clashes resulted in the local House of Trade Unions being set on fire. More than 200 people were injured in the tragedy while 48 lost their lives.