The first arrests in the investigation that started from the bomb attack in Monaco are appearing. The Pechersky District Court in Kiev has ordered the preventive arrest, without the right to bail, of the former officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vitaliy Jikovici, accused of killing Anastasia Berezovskaia, the woman sought by Interpol for the attempted assassination of Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev.
According to Ukrainian prosecutors, Berezovskaia was killed on July 3, near the village of Iurov, in the Kiev region. Vladislav Reut, presumed accomplice of Jikovici, is also being investigated in the same case, notes Mediafax.
The lawyer of the former SBU officer has requested in court the replacement of preventive arrest with house arrest and electronic monitoring. The defense argued that Jikovici was a member of the Right Sector, worked in the police, and subsequently within the SBU.
How would the suspect of the attack have been killed
Before the court, Vladislav Reut denied having participated in the killing of Anastasia Berezovskaia and maintained that the former SBU officer was the one who fired all the gunshots.
Reut stated that, on the day of the crime, Jikovici asked him for a ride and told him that the woman needed to be hidden because she was in danger.
“I had no knowledge of any intention to kill her,” he stated.
According to his testimony, during the journey, Jikovici took out a Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer from his backpack and explained that the weapon was only to be used for intimidation.
Having arrived in a forested area, Jikovici would have asked Reut to get out of the car and follow Berezovskaia. He claims that he was handed the weapon and was signaled to shoot, but he refused.
“I refused to do it. I didn’t even point the gun at her,” declared Reut.
He asserts that Jikovici would have taken the gun from his hand and shot the woman in the back of the head, then in the torso, continuing until he fired a total of four gunshots.
After the crime, Reut says he was forced to dig a hole to hide the body, while Jikovici allegedly took the victim’s phones, documents, and other belongings. Subsequently, the two are said to have thrown the weapon and personal items into a lake.
Reut further claimed that he was threatened with death if he revealed what had happened.
“He told me that if something happens to him, me and my parents would be next,” he declared in court.
He added that he is willing to be tested with a lie detector and argued that the reason for the crime would have been the fact that Berezovskaia was about to testify against him, Jikovici, in another criminal case.
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