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| Europe |
| Kateryna Handziuk: Ukraine activist, 33, dies from acid attack |
| 2018-11-05 |
| [Al Jazeera] Kateryna Handziuk, a 33-year-old Ukrainian anti-corruption activist and political adviser, died on Sunday after suffering critical injuries from an acid attack in July. Handziuk, who was an adviser to the mayor of Kherson and critic of local police, sustained severe burns to more than a third of her body after she was sprayed with a litre of sulphuric acid outside her home in the southeastern city of Kherson. She had been battling the injuries in a hospital in Kiev, where she underwent 11 operations. Five suspects have been detained for their alleged involvement, but no further information has been released about who ordered the attack. From her hospital bed and covered in burns, Handziuk had recently called on the government to probe rising attacks on activists. Police initially listed the case as "hooliganism" but after public uproar changed it to "attempted murder committed with extreme cruelty". Local and international human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedomat the convenience of the state... groups have recorded more than 55 unsolved attacks on activists - including Handziuk - since the start of 2017. President Petro Poroshenko on Sunday called on law enforcement agencies to do "everything possible" to find and punish Handziuk's killers. But campaigners say his remarks are too little, too late. Marya Guryeva from Natalia Shopavlova, a Ukraine expert from Carnegie Europe, told Al Jazeera: "Activists campaign against corruption, they name the names of people who are behind illegal construction. Those people are not happy and they try to shut up the activists." In one case, on October 4, politician Sergiy Gusovsky was doused with antiseptic liquid and beaten in Kiev City Council following his speech at a rally. Gusovsky told Al Jazeera he was attacked because he opposed various investment agreements, highlighting his work in challenging the construction of 25 buildings in Kiev's Echo Park for ecological reasons. |
| Posted by:Fred |