(As
published in The Independent on Sunday)
A parliamentarian who organised Ukraine's pro-EU
protests, in which thousands demanded the removal of President Viktor
Yanukovych, was assaulted on Friday night in the latest in a series of violent
attacks on the demonstrations' organisers.
Andriy Illienko, a Svoboda
Party MP, and party activist and lawyer Sydir Kizin were leaving a police
station in central Kiev when they were set upon by a gang of youths.
Around a
dozen men reportedly kicked and punched the two men but fled when the attack
was interrupted by two passers-by, who Svoboda said had rescued their members
from "probable death".
An ambulance crew at the scene told The
Independent on Sunday that the MP had suffered a fractured jaw and
concussion.
Shortly before the attack, Mr Illienko had been speaking to
officers at Shevchenko District police station about an incident in which the
Svoboda Party accused police of conspiring with nationalist marchers who threw
flaming torches at a Kiev hotel on New Year's Day.
In a statement responding to
the assault on Mr Illienko, the party said: "The Svoboda Party considers
this attack as a particularly cynical attempt on the life of a statesman. This
attack was planned in advance, with thugs and police acting as a coalition."
A
recent string of attacks has targeted the opposition and pro-EU activists who
have led five weeks of protests against the government's rejection of a free
trade and political integration agreement with the EU in favour of closer ties
with Russia.
On Christmas Eve, a pro-EU activist, Dmitry Pylypets, was stabbed
outside his apartment in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine.Opposition journalist Tetyana
Chornovol was beaten unconscious after assailants drove her car off the road on
Christmas Day.
In the past month, police have raided an opposition headquarters
and three critical news outlets, seizing hard drives and computer servers.
Authorities have twice used force to try to clear protesters from Kiev's
Independence Square.
Police announced yesterday that they had opened an
investigation into the latest attack but had no suspects.
