In a new documentary argues that the Ukrainian intelligence could witness the laying of car bombs, with the result that in July of last year in Kiev, he was killed well-known journalist.
Pavel Sheremet has left his home in the Ukrainian capital and was driving to work when his car exploded. This was the murder of a reporter in the country after the decapitation in 2000 of investigative journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated that prompt investigation of the murder of Sheremet is “a matter of honor.” He called for a transparent investigation by the police and security services. But 10 months later no one was ever arrested.
In the movie “the Murder of Paul” States that the agent working in the secret services of Ukraine, was present at the laying of the device under the car of a journalist. On Wednesday, the Project on investigation of corruption and organized crime, and Slidstvo. info showed a documentary about this on Ukrainian television.
Investigators said that Sheremet was killed with the help of remotely controlled bombs. Most likely, the reason for the murder were his investigations in the Ukraine and other countries. The journalist had supported the Pro-Western uprising in 2014, when Yanukovych fled to Russia, but also sharply criticized the new government in Ukraine.
Footage from a security camera published by the media and by the police revealed that an unidentified man and woman approached the Subaru that belonged to Sheremet, the night before the explosion. It was obvious that the woman sat on her knees beside a parked car on the driver side.
The creators of the film “the Murder of Paul” found new records from surveillance cameras, which the police found. They reveal new details about a possible assassins, who returned to the scene the next morning, shortly before Sheremet got in his doomed car.
The footage shows several suspicious men who arrived on the street that night. Looks like they carried out the surveillance. They were still there when a man and a woman passed by and allegedly planted the bomb. Citizen journalism group Bellingcat was able to identify their car — grey Skoda — and its registration.
Reporters later found one of the men and found his name is Igor Ustimenko. Ustimenko recognized that were in the area that night and said that he was hired as a private detective to follow someone else’s kids. He denied that he saw those who planted the bomb, and said that the police had not contacted him.
Then the reporters turned to a government source. He confirmed that Ustimenko since 2014 working in the secret intelligence service of the SBU. Volodya refused to comment. The film also provided evidence that Sheremet had been under surveillance for several weeks before his murder.
The Minister of internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov denied that the murder was organized by the government. Press Secretary of the Ministry refused to comment on the film. The security service did not answer immediately.
“The Ukrainian government has repeatedly promised to find the killer of Paul, but it is clear that they have done little,” said drew Sullivan, editor of the Project of investigation of corruption and organized crime. “Now we have to consider the possibility that someone in the government played a role in the murder,” he said.
Sheremet has been a leading television journalist in his native Belarus. He was forced to move to Russia after the arrest in 1997 of smuggling at the border. His cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky was abducted and killed in Belarus in 2000. Sheremet later moved to Ukraine, where he became a famous journalist thanks to his radio show.
In my latest blog article for the newspaper “Ukrainian truth” Sheremet said that some commanders of militants and veterans of the conflict with Pro-Moscow separatists in Eastern Ukraine escaped punishment for other crimes. Partner Sheremeta, Olena Prytula, was co-founder of the newspaper that Gongadze, whose brutal murder sparked nationwide anger.
Sheremet drove only a few tens of meters on the street of Ivan Franko, when the explosion ripped through his car, fatally wounding the journalist.”Er” took him to the time when on the scene arrived Pritula. They only found out the remains of his charred car.
The murder provoked a massive scandal. For assistance in identifying explosives even attracted American specialists from the FBI. Deputy UN high Commissioner for human rights Kate Gilmore, said that the murder Sheremet will be “a test of the ability and willingness of the Ukrainian institutions to investigate attacks on media freedom”.
