Court places Sheremet murder suspect Antonenko under night house arrest
Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court has changed the measure of restraint for Andriy Antonenko, a suspect in the killing of journalist Pavlo Sheremet, from round-the-clock house arrest to house arrest every night from 23:00 to 06:00.
The presiding judge, Oksana Holub, announced this at a court session on Monday, September 27, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.
"The court ruled to change the measure of restraint for Antonenko from round-the-clock house arrest using an electronic monitoring device to house arrest during a designated period of time using an electronic monitoring device, forbidding him to leave his place of residence from 23:00 to 06:00. The measure of restraint has been set for two months, until November 27 inclusive," Holub said.
The court also imposed additional obligations on Antonenko, including the obligation to come to the court at each request, to hand in his documents for travel abroad, to refrain from out-of-court communication with persons involved in these proceedings as victims, witnesses, experts, specialists, not to leave the Kyiv region without a court permit, to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, etc.
The court also extended the measure of restraint in the form of house arrest every night from 23:00 to 06:00 for Yulia Kuzmenko, another suspect in the case. Additional obligations for another suspect in the case, Yana Duhar, were extended for two months, until November 27 inclusive.
The court also considered a number of petitions from the defendants' defense lawyers and decided to grant the request from Taras Bezpalyi, Kuzmenko's defense lawyer, to return her the things that were temporarily seized during the searches.
At the same time, the court rejected the request of Duhar's lawyer Denys Lomanov to return the things temporarily seized from his client during several searches.
After that, the court postponed the court hearing to 11:00 on September 28.
Journalist Pavlo Sheremet was killed in a car explosion in Kyiv on July 20, 2016.
On December 12, 2019, the then Interior Minister, Arsen Avakov, announced that the police had detained and brought charges against war medic and volunteer Yulia Kuzmenko, parachute battalion nurse Yana Duhar, and Anti-Terrorist Operation veteran and musician Andriy Antonenko.
In September 2020, law enforcers forwarded the indictments to court.
On January 4, audio recordings were leaked showing purported communications of Belarusian KGB security service officials allegedly discussing the physical elimination of Alexander Lukashenko's political opponents, including Sheremet. Former Belarusian security officer Igor Makar, who handed over the tapes to Ukrainian police, testified in the Sheremet murder case in Kyiv on January 19.
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