The Kastrychnitski District Court of Mariupol decided to keep the Belarusian volunteer ‘Lion’ in custody until 19 April. He had been detained over alleged kidnapping and murder.
According to the investigation, in the second half of October 2014 “Lion”, together with Ukrainian volunteers, received an order “from a certain person” to abduct, imprison and eliminate the resident of one of the neighboring villages of Mariupol.
The court judgment stated that on November 2nd, 2014, the victim was taken to the forest, shot from a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the back and buried on the spot. According to prosecutors, it was Ihar Kliauko who shot the victim.
During the trial, Mr Kliauko said the case may have taken place, but he was not the one to have do ne it. The volunteer told the court about his health and the treatment he was undergoing, which was impossible in the detention center. Therefore, he requested that the court did not have him arrested. The court rejected the petition and decided to take him into custody. The decision was motivated by the fact that the Belarusian was suspected of committing a serious crime which carries imprisonment for more than ten years, and that he “had no permanent place of residence and stable social relations in Ukraine and could escape from the pre-trial investigation”.
Together with the “Donbass” batallion and “Right Sector” Ihar had been to almost all the hot spots in the east of Ukraine: Artemovsk, Lisichansk, Ilovaysk, Peski. During the fighting he had received multiple shrapnel wounds of soft tissues of the face, the left lower leg, a gunshot comminuted fracture of the left shinbone, gunshot fracture of the left calfbone.
The decision of the Mariupol court noted that IharKliauko was born in Maladzechna, has Belarusian citizenship and refugee status in the Czech Republic. After fighting in volunteer battalions, he began serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the contract.
The “Donbass” battalion is yet to comment on the situation with the detention of Ihar Kliauko.
