The Milan Court of Appeal released from custody the National Guardsman Vitaly Markiv, who was suspected of murdering Italian journalist Andy Rockella near Slavyansk in 2014. Almost all Ukrainian mass media have been writing about it since yesterday.
ElitExpert found out why a Ukrainian national guard could receive 24 years in prison.
Who is Markiv?
Vitaliy Markiv - lived in the Ternopil region, after which he left to live with his mother, who worked in Italy. There he graduated from college and received Italian citizenship. However, in 2013, he came to Kyiv and became one of the members of Maidan self-defense. After the start of the anti-terrorist operation, he signed up as a volunteer in the battalion named after Sergei Kulchytskyi, who fought near Slavyansk, became a komsvod.
In the summer of 2017, Markiv and his wife went to Italy to visit his mother. He was detained at Bologna airport and charged with the murder of a journalist. The court sent the man under arrest.
What was the Ukrainian accused of?
In Italy, it was believed that on May 25, 2014, Markiv gave the order to shoot from Mount Karachun, controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, at the railway crossing where the separatists' checkpoint was located. Journalists Andrea Rokella and Andrey Mironov were killed as a result of mortar shelling. French reporter William Rougelon, who was wounded but survived, also came under fire. He says that the shelling lasted about 20 minutes, shots were fired from Karachun, and during this time no one could raise their heads.
An Italian journalist became the first media worker to die during the conflict in Donbass. Due to the death of a colleague, the Italian journalistic associations spoke out against the National Guard employee - they initiated the investigation of this case.
If you do not consider the statement of the surviving French correspondent, the investigation was based on the testimony of two Italian journalists who were near Slavyansk at different times.
For example, Ilaria Morany claimed to the investigators that in May 2014, after the death of her compatriot Rokkella, she heard a telephone conversation with Vitaly Markiv. The fighter was called by her photojournalist colleague, Marcello Fauci, who was next to the journalist at the time and knew Vitaly from the events of the Kyiv Maidan.
She said that the Ukrainian learned about the death of journalists from Morana and Fauci and warned them not to go to the place of death of their compatriot because of the high level of danger. There was also a quote that allegedly belonged to Markiv: "Usually we don't shoot in the direction of the city or at civilians, but as soon as we see any movement, we charge heavy artillery. This is what happened to the car of two journalists and a translator."
The investigation claims that the railway crossing could only be shot from Mount Karachun, and Markiv allegedly gave the order to "shoot at everything that moves within a radius of two kilometers."
Version of Ukraine and Markiv
The then First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema claimed that the separatists' checkpoint was fired upon by the separatists themselves, and there were no mortars at the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Mount Karachun at that time. Markiv himself also denied all the charges against him, and his lawyer Raffaele della Valle believed that the fighter was being tried on dubious suspicions, which are based on the statement that he "contributed" to the death of the journalist.
24 years of prison and freedom
Markiv was supported at the trial by Ukrainian officials, even the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, came, and the defense lawyer of Donatella Rapetta gave a closing speech at the court session in the city of Pavia, which lasted six hours.
However, the court was not convinced by this and sentenced the Ukrainian to 24 years of imprisonment. However, the Court of Appeal of Milan sided with the Ukrainian, letting his ego go free.
