Four criminal cases opened into July 4 disturbances in central Kyiv - prosecutors
KYIV. July 6 (Interfax) - The Kyiv prosecutor's office has opened four criminal cases into disturbances that occurred near the Ukrainian House in the center of Kyiv on July 4.
The cases were opened upon consideration of claims by police officials that they were offered resistance and sustained bodily injuries while performing their duties, the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Friday.
One of these cases deals with resistance offered to a senior traffic police officer, who attempted to prevent a car from driving on a sidewalk near the Ukrainian House, where a lot of people were standing.
"Three people approached the law enforcement officer, one of them got into this parked car and started driving, and the other two used physical force to push the officer away, tore off shoulder marks from his uniform, and held him to restrict his movement," the prosecutor's office said.
The other three criminal cases were opened into infliction of bodily injuries on policemen.
One of these policemen sustained a brain concussion, and the others bruises and other injuries. All of them are undergoing medical treatment now, the prosecutor's office said.
It was reported earlier that the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada had passed a bill on fundamentals of the state language policy initiated by the Party of Regions on July 3. The bill upgrades the status of the Russian language and the languages of other ethnic minorities in regions where 10% or more people consider them their native languages.
One of the bill's authors, Vadym Kolesnychenko, said the Party of Regions would try to legitimize the Russian language's official status through the Constitutional Assembly.
The opposition claimed that the bill's adoption involved numerous violations.
Hundreds of the bill's opponents started gathering near the Ukrainian House on July 3 to express their protest. A number of parliamentarians declared a hunger strike.