Ukrainian interior minister: Odesa police conduct on May 2 may be defined as criminal
KYIV. May 5 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has called the police conduct in the May 2 disturbances shameful or even criminal.
"The Odesa police acted in a shameful or, probably, even criminal manner. All chiefs of the Odesa [police] department have been removed from office. Their activity is being investigated. There will be no shamefaced attempts to save face," the minister wrote on Facebook on Sunday night.
Avakov said that the regional prosecutor gathered police chiefs on the day of the disturbances to confer on "how to deter the disturbances correctly." "As I have been told they switched off their phones and conferred for four hours (!!). From noon till 4 p.m.," Avakov stressed.
The interior minister also noted that the prosecutor had prohibited them from transferring over 100 people detained on the night after the disturbances and pending a trial to another region.
"Today the prosecutor decided to free the detainees after the separatist crowd blocked the Odesa city [police] department and broke into its yard," Avakov said, expressing his indignation.
The minister said he was visiting a camp near Slovyansk, Donetsk region. "As soon as we are finished here, I will definitely go to Odesa," he said.
Maidan supporters and opponents clashed in Odesa on Friday, May 2, and a fire broke out at the Trade Union House. Eyewitnesses said the building caught fire after the supporters of right-radical forces had threw "Molotov cocktails". The tragic events claimed 46 lives. Reportedly, more than 200 wounded people sought medical assistance at hospitals.
