Media: Yanukovych's lawyer brought Molotov cocktails to the Pechersky Court in Kyiv
Former President Viktor Yanukovych’s lawyer brought wooden bats, blocks, and glass bottles with fuses in the form of rags – the materials needed for gasoline bombs - to a session of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv. It is still unknown if there was a combustible solution inside.
As Channel 112 reported, lawyer Vitaly Serdyuk was trying to use these materials to prove that the protest on Maidan was not peaceful. "These are threats; this is material evidence, which the whole time have been named as tools of the peace process ... We will ask for a small experiment, with the consent of the prosecutors," the judge said.
Police were called into the courtroom in connection with the incident.
The Pechersky court is reviewing evidence for a petition submitted by the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, which called for special (extra-judicial) pre-trial investigations into Yanukovych's role in organizing and commanding executions of Maidan participants in February 2014.
Yanukovych is suspected of abuse of official authority by law enforcement officers during Maidan (Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity), which led to mass casualties among protesters. He was also charged with the organization of premeditated murders on Maidan during February 19-20, 2014, as well as a terrorist attack on Institute Street on February 20.
The Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv is reviewing a separate case against Yanukovych for high treason. Attorney Serdyuk refused to participate in that trial; a state defender is representing the interests of the former president there.