Late in the evening of June 6, the Pechersk district court of Kyiv released Mikhail Sigida, suspected in the murder of combatant in the Donbass, fighter of the Donbass Battalion Vitaliy Oleshko (callsign Sarmat), from custody. This is reported by Radio Liberty.
Radio Liberty reports that this court hearing was not announced. Judge Serhiy Vovk decided to release Sigida from custody under house arrest, while rejecting the request of the investigation to extend the term of detention in custody of the accused.
"Journalists carefully monitored every attempt to get Sigida out of custody and regularly went to the courts. The resonance broke this plan. This time everything was organized quietly, the court had to sit in the middle of the night", journalist of Radio Liberty Natalia Sedletska noted.
"Oleshko's friends are convinced that he was killed because of the struggle with the local authorities and people's deputy Alexander Ponomariov, who controls Berdiansk and local security forces. Detainee Sigida is not only the main suspect in the organization of the murder, but also a key person who could testify about the real contractor", - Sedletska noted.
Vitaliy "Sarmat" Oleshko, Berdiansk activist and a participant in hostilities in the Donbass, was killed on the territory of a hotel owned by his family in Berdiansk on July 31, 2018. The unknown person entered the hotel and fired two shots.
At first, five people were first detained on suspicion of the murder of "Sarmat". In December 2018, businessman from Dnipro Yevhen Brodsky, who was suspected of being involved in the murder, was detained at the Kharkiv Airport, while trying to cross the border. According to the police, he may be one of the contractors. Brodsky himself stated during applying a measure of restraint for him in court that he was not familiar with Oleshko.
The leadership of the National Police stated that killing of "Sarmat" was ordered. There are several versions of the murder. In September 2018, the National Police reported: "the maker gave testimony about the contractor, he is identified and is being looked for".
In April 2018, Vitaliy "Sarmat" Oleshko organized a rally in Zaporizhia against head of the Zaporizhia Regional State Administration Kostiantyn Bryl. The protesters blamed the official for the desolation of the Molochnyi Estuary, where last year, as a result of the untimely cleaning of the estuary bed, there was a mass fish kill. In addition, the activists claimed that half a billion hryvnias were allocated for the repair of the Vasylivka-Enerhodar road, but the repair did not take place. Vitaliy "Sarmat" Oleshko also repeatedly publicly criticized the work of the Berdiansk city government.