Translated by Ollie Richardson

13:30:29
18/04/2018

smi.pp.ua

Should the Italian court recognise the guilt of the former “ATO” militant Vitaly Markiv in the death of the citizen of Italy Andrea Rocchelli in Donbass, it will give an international precedent to declare the “ATO” as illegal. In this case the Russian Federation will be able to file a lawsuit in the Hague for the cancellation of the sanctions inflicted on it for allegedly participating in the war in the east of Ukraine.

This was stated by the deputy from the “Bloc of Petro Poroshenko” faction Andrey Antonishchak during a session in the Verkhovna Rada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8_fClW5swo

“On May 25th, 2014, near Slavyansk, near the railway crossing in the village of Andreevka in the Slavyansk district of the Donetsk region, two journalists died during a mortar attack: the citizen of Italy Andrea Rocchelli and the citizen of the Russian Federation Andrey Mironov. According to investigators, Andrea Rocchelli’s press photographer, William Rogulon, accompanied by the translator Andrey Mironov, arrived to the territory of the country without the appropriate registration of crossing the border and didn’t receive accreditation from the SBU for carrying out professional journalistic activity in the zone of conducting the ‘ATO’.

They came to the area of the railway crossing near the village of Andreevka via a leased ‘Daewoo Nexia’ car, for the purpose of photographing the area that was subjected to artillery shelling the day before. According to the conjectures of the witness, Markiv was involved in a mortar attack that led to Rocchelli’s death. As of May, 2014, there weren’t any mortars in the arms of the National Guard of Ukraine deployed in the district of Slavyansk.

The official information of the National Guard of Ukraine confirms that units of operational assignment and the National Guard of Ukraine during the period from March 20th, 2014 to August 4th, 2014, had exclusively shooting arms. In the arms there were: submachine guns and machine guns. They had no artillery weapons, including mortars. This fact physically excludes that Markiv could have killed Rocchelli,” said Antonishchak.

He complained that the Italian judicial authorities haven’t considered it necessary to cancel the measure of restraint or at least replace it with house arrest, and Russia submitted a request to interrogate Markiv.

“It is also necessary to note that should the Italian prosecutor announce a verdict against Vitaly Markiv – there will be an international precedent of illegal actions by military formations of Ukraine concerning defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine – as well as every serviceman who participated in the fighting as a part of these military formations. Also it will be a powerful argument for the Russian Federation to bring in a third party and to send an appeal to the Hague and to strive for the cancellation of sanctions against Russia,” said Antonishchak.

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