Ukraine Classified All Court Decisions In Sharamet’s Case

The police of Ukraine has introduced heavy security.

The National Police of Ukraine has initiated security measures and classified all the court decisions in the case of journalist Pavel Sharamet’s murder since July 24, 2017. It is stated in the reply of the State Judicial Administration to the request of Ukrainian News.

"By the decision of the Chief Investigation Department of the National Police of July 24, 2017 on the application of security measures in respect of persons taking part in criminal proceedings, the enterprise (the state enterprise Information Judicial Systems ) is obliged to limit full and general access in the Unified Register of Judicial Decisions to definitions, adopted by investigative judges of the Pechersk District Court of Kiev on motions in the criminal proceedings," – it reads.

At the moment, more than 200 documents on Sharamet’s murder have been removed from the open access in the Unified State Register of Judicial Decisions, the agency notes.

In particular, the decisions to provide the police with information on mobile negotiations of possible persons involved in criminal proceedings have been removed.

In September, the UN Monitoring Mission for Human Rights in Ukraine expressed concern about the lack of progress in the investigation of Sharamet’s murder.

"It's worrying that the protection of freedom of expression has been weakened in the media, more than a year has passed after journalist Pavel Sharamet’s murder, but there is no progress in investigating the circumstances of his death," – head of mission in Ukraine Fiona Fraser said.

In August, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko advocated the involvement of foreign experts in the team investigating the murder.

On July 20, 2017, Speaker of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Artem Shevchenko stated that there were still no suspects in the case on the journalist's murder.

Sharamet was killed in Kiev on July 20, 2016 as a result of an explosion of the car belonging to a co-founder of Ukrainian Truth and his civil wife Alena Pritula.

The investigation considers five versions of the motives for the murder: his professional activity, a murder by mistake (instead of Pritula), his critical publications in Ukrainian Truth and speeches on Radio Vesti, destabilization of the situation in Ukraine, as well as conflicts dealing with Sharamet's personal life.

In June 2017, chairman of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech and information policy Viktoria Syumar reported that more than 3,000 people, including eyewitnesses to the explosion, had been interrogated in the pre-trial investigation in Sharamet’s case.