KYIV – Kateryna Handzyuk, a Ukrainian civic activist and adviser to the mayor of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, died on November 4 from wounds she suffered from an acid attack three months earlier.
The 33-year-old Handzyuk died in a Kyiv hospital where she was being treated for burns from the attack, colleagues and officials said.
Local media suggested that Ms. Handzyuk’s death was caused by a blood clot.
Several hundred supporters gathered around Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry building in Kyiv late on November 4, demanding that those responsible for her death be brought to justice.
[RFE/RL later reported that Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko submitted his resignation to President Petro Poroshenko amid public outrage over the handling of an investigation into the acid attack on Ms. Handzyuk. However, it remains uncertain whether Mr. Lutsenko will actually step down after Iryna Herashchenko, the first deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada, said on November 6 that Mr. Poroshenko’s governing coalition would not support his resignation and a later vote in Parliament showed little support for his departure. Mr. Lutsenko’s press secretary, Larysa Sarhan, said the prosecutor’s resignation letter was sent to the presidential office on November 7. That same day, funeral services for Ms. Handzyuk were held in Kherson.]Acid attack on July 31
The activist, who was known for her scathing criticism of police corruption, was doused with sulfuric acid outside of her Kherson home on July 31 by an unknown attacker.
Her death comes amid a wave of attacks against Ukraine’s civic activists, with rights campaigners claiming law-enforcement agencies have failed to thoroughly investigate the cases and may even be complicit in some of the attacks.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, speaking during his trip in Turkey, expressed his condolences to Ms. Handzyuk’s family and called on law-enforcement agencies to do everything in their power to bring her killer to justice.
Five suspects have been detained for their alleged involvement in the attack, but there was no information about its mastermind.
“Attacks against civil society activists are unacceptable. The perpetrators of this vicious crime must be brought to justice,” EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn tweeted.
Ms. Handzyuk suffered severe burns to nearly 40 percent of her body and lost sight in one of her eyes after the acid attack, according to doctors who treated her at a burn center in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Doctors performed 11 surgical operations to try to save her life. From her hospital bed, Ms. Handzyuk vowed to track down her attackers.
Police initially listed the case as hooliganism but changed it to attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty after public outcry.
Ukrainian lawmaker Olena Sotnyk on November 4 renewed her previous call for a special investigative committee to be formed in parliament to probe her case.
55 unsolved attacks against activists
Local and international civil society groups have recorded at least 55 unsolved attacks against activists, including on Ms. Handzyuk, since 2017.
In recent months, protesters demanding a proper police response have gathered outside government buildings across the country in a campaign dubbed “silence kills.”
Prosecutor General Lutsenko, a presidential appointee, caused an uproar after one of the protests in September, when he said activists were themselves partly to blame because they “stir up” an “atmosphere of total hatred toward the authorities.”
Ms. Handzyuk was stinging in her criticism of police corruption.
In September 2017, she accused Artem Antoshchuk, a department head in the Kherson Regional Police, of demanding a 3 percent cut from all contracts and tenders in the region. The accusation led to a fierce court battle, which she won.
Police have arrested five former fighters of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, a splinter faction of the ultranationalist Right Sector militia, suspected of involvement in the attack.
Four of the men have claimed the fifth, Serhiy Torbin, a former officer of Kherson police, was the main suspect. Mr. Torbin is in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine at a pretrial detention center in Kyiv, his defense lawyer Yuriy Khazov told the Kyiv Post newspaper.
Stills from a CCTV camera published by local media appear to show the alleged attacker running away from the scene of the crime.
Six weeks before her death, Ms. Handzyuk recorded a video message for Hromadske TV from her hospital bed. Wrapped in bandages, she said she was certain the attack was meant to kill her.
“Why do I consider it to be assassination attempt? Because the acid was poured on my head,” she said. “If someone wanted to warn or silence me, they could have targeted my arms, legs or face – anywhere. But they poured a liter of acid on my head.”
Before she signed off, she added: “Yes, I know that I look bad now. But I’m sure that I look much better than law and justice in Ukraine,” she said. “Because they aren’t treated by anyone.”
Copyright 2018, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036; www.rferl.org (see https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-activist-doused-with-acid-dies/29581875.html and https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-prosecutor-submits-resignation-as-acid-attack-activist-s-funeral-held/29588044.html).