Kyiv court freeing students detained during pro-EU protests - party
KYIV. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Ukraine's opposition Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party said a district court in Kyiv had held "about a dozen sessions" on Monday at which students detained during pro-European union protests in the city on Friday night and early on Saturday were released.
"Judges at the Shevchenkivsky District Court in Kyiv are releasing students detained during the dispersal of the [demonstrations] on Friday. According to the political party's lawyers who are present at the trials, there have been about a dozen of sessions at the court at each of which the judges made identical decisions: police reports were sent back as illegal in form and the students were released," Batkivshchyna said in a statement.
Altogether about 30 students were arrested late on Friday and early on Saturday, the party said. The students, whom lawmakers "got out of the police stations" on Saturday morning, were scheduled to go on trial on Monday, it said.
"The police accuse the students, who were brutally beaten up, of petty hooliganism and disobedience to [police]," Batkivshchyna said.
The Shevchenkivsky District Court was meanwhile being picketed by pro-EU demonstrators.
The Kyiv police said earlier that 35 people had been arrested for alleged disobedience to police and hooliganism during demonstrations late on Friday and early on Saturday but that the detainees had been released after being charged.