Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

22:30:09
14/07/2018

ua1.com.ua/glavnovosti.com

On the morning of 13th July in Kiev officers from the National Police illegally entered the apartment of an American citizen and assaulted her husband, a foreign businessman, the owner of the Zhytomyr confectionery factory “ZHL” [Zhytomyr Candies – ed] Igor Boyko. This was reported from the place of events by the correspondent of the Internet publication “UA1”.

The police arrived at the apartment where the American businessman was at 5:45 am, i.e. at a time when the carrying out of any investigative actions is forbidden by law. At the time the police were out of uniform, didn’t show any ID, and didn’t introduce themselves. Under the pretext of verifying house arrest, they forcefully burst into the room. “Unknown people in civilian clothes, without introducing themselves, dragged me out of bed, started to restrain my hands, and then beat me. I thought that they were criminals who wanted to kill or kidnap me,” said Igor Boyko.

The police had a ruling of the Pechersky district court of Kiev from Aleksey Sokolov on bringing the suspect in for questioning by force with permission to enter the living room. According to the lawyer of the businessman Ekaterina Nikityuk, such a decision is illegal because it violates the right to inviolability of housing and the right of the suspect to not testify against themselves.

As a result of the illegal actions of the police, Igor Boyko suffered serious injuries, and he was brought by force to the senior investigator of the main investigation department of the National Police Evgeny Kostetsky. After being attacked and beaten both before entering the elevator and whilst being inside it, Boyko had a hypertensive crisis. Boyko had to wait for paramedics on the floor of the hallway of the investigative department. After being given medical aid, the condition of the foreigner stabilised.

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The investigator of the main investigation department of the National Police Evgeny Kostetsky, on whose initiative the forceful capture took place, refused to comment to the journalists of “UA1” about police brutality and violations of the law while implementing this capture. Also, the investigator refused to state who from the police officers caused bodily harm to the American citizen.

As a reminder, the owner of Zhytomyr confectionery factory “ZHL” Igor Boyko repeatedly stated that the authorities persecute him in the interests of the President Petro Poroshenko. The businessman Igor Boyko asserts his right to own “ZHL”, a confectionery company that the People’s Deputy from “People’s Front” Sergey Pashinsky gave the order to confiscate.

According to the lawyer of Boyko Evgeny Dolinsky, his client is being blackmailed into withdrawing his claim in the international arbitration court against Ukraine for the expropriation of his business, which is worth $100 million. In the beginning of December, 2017 Bokyo was arrested in accordance with the decision of the Pechersky district court of Kiev with the right to post bail.