Ex-Berkut commander gets 10 years for Maidan crackdowns
Justice moves at the speed of a rusty tractor, but it eventually finds you even if you're chilling in exile.
A court in Kyiv just handed down prison terms ranging from 7 to 10 years to six guys who spent January 2014 running brutal manhunts against protesters. The roster includes the former chief of the capital's notorious Berkut riot unit, three fellow officers, and two street thugs hired to coordinate paid goons.
Back then, these cops didn't just coordinate with hired street muscle to beat up demonstrators. They kidnapped 22 activists, smashed them up, and then fabricated police reports to throw the victims in jail for alleged mass rioting.
Naturally, the verdicts were delivered in absentia, because nobody expects any of these fine gentlemen to willingly hop on a train back from Russia to do their time.
A ten-year sentence on paper might feel purely symbolic today, but spending the rest of one's life as an internationally wanted convict stranded in suburban Moscow is its own special kind of prison.
Source: Prosecutor General's Office
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