Three injured in Kiev rally as police try to stop protesters from putting up tents
Protesters demand to strip the lawmakers of immunity and to set up an anti-corruption tribunal
KIEV, October 17. /TASS/. At least three people, including a policeman, were hurt in downtown Kiev on Tuesday as the police tried to stop protesters putting up tents in a square in front of the parliament building and an adjacent street.
After a rally in front of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) building, activists of the New Forces Movement led by Georgian ex-President and former Odessa Region’s Governor Mikhail Saakashvili began to put up about 20 tents. They also plan to put up more tents in a park located in the vicinity and along the street where the building is situated.
Avtomaidan activists have brought a mobile kitchen trailer.
Among the demands advanced by the protesters are to strip the lawmakers of immunity, to set up an anti-corruption tribunal, etc.
Showing up at the rally earlier in the day, Saakashvili demanded Poroshenko’s resignation blaming him for usurping judicial power. "There will be nothing good as long as Poroshenko is president. If he doesn’t hear you today, we must move to another location to demand Poroshenko step down and free Ukraine’s people," Saakashvili said. "Over the past three to four years, we have seen only one thing: all we have witnessed is that one man has taken over all the courts and the entire Verkhovna Rada. There is no political process in Ukraine any longer. All we have is idle talk and the arbitrariness of one man.".