Ukraine prosecutors charge official over acid attack on activist
- Litre of acid was poured on anti-corruption activist Kateryna Gandzyuk, who died months later
- Death sparked condemnation of government and drew attention to dozens of assaults on other anti-corruption campaigners
Ukrainian prosecutors said on Monday they had charged a high-ranking regional official with organising a deadly acid attack on a prominent anti-corruption activist.
Vladyslav Manger, the head of the local council in the southern region of Kherson, is accused of “organising the murder of Kateryna Gandzyuk”, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on Facebook.
Lutsenko’s spokeswoman Larysa Sargan said Manger was accused of “intentionally and unlawfully causing the death of another person … with special cruelty and by prior agreement with a group of individuals”.
“Investigative actions, searches are under way,” she said on Facebook.
Manger was a member of the Batkivshchyna political party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a key rival of President Petro Poroshenko ahead of a presidential election due on March 31. He was expelled from the party last week.
Gandzyuk, who worked as an adviser to the mayor of Kherson, was an outspoken critic of corruption in law enforcement agencies.