Judge Who Sentenced Protesters Shot Dead in Ukraine

[dipsydoodle]

Source: RIA Novosti

KIEV, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – A Ukrainian judge who recently sentenced several political protesters to house arrest has been shot dead by unknown attackers, police said Wednesday.

Alexander Lobodenko, a 34-year-old district court judge, was shot several times in the back by two assailants on a street near his home in central Ukraine late Tuesday night, the country’s Interior Ministry said.

One of the bullets grazed his spine, according to a statement on the Kremenchug district website, and Lobodenko died in intensive care at about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Police have opened a criminal case into the death and said that Lobodenko was likely killed as a result of his judicial work. They did not speculate about which of the judge’s decisions may have motivated the attack.

One of Lobodenko’s most recent rulings, according to the Ukrainian newspaper Telegraf, sentenced two pro-European activists on January 28 to two months of house arrest.

Read more: http://en.ria.ru/world/20140212/187460252/Judge-Who-Sentenced-Protesters-Shot-Dead-in-Ukraine.html

[JDPriestly]

1. It's as if the Cold War was breaking out again.

This is just terrible.

[Loaded Liberal Dem]

2. Agents Provocateur?

Cernunnos knows Putin could use the distraction!

[Fred Sanders]

3. When you start assasinating Judges you the killer have lost all moral authority.

[freshwest]

4. And if it was for the 'two months house arrest' that's OTT.

Pampango made the best post on the situation there. The country is divided historically between two sectors but they are now mixed. The eastern part favors Russia as many are closely related to them. The western part favors Europe for the same reason. They are in a civil war, and the demonstrations likely consisted were the results of with years of hatreds. Very, very vicious stuff going on there.

[Igel]

5. Sad.

Sadder yet that there are two streams of reporting on this.

The first is in Russian. It's in the Russian-language newspapers from Kiev over to the Donbas up through Moscow and Petersburg. Serious news.

The second is in the Ukrainian-language press which says, "_____________________." Hard to find even a mention of the incident.

The further from Kiev the newspaper, the more certain the reporters are that it's opposition activists who killed him for sentencing two people who broke down the door to the mayoralty in Kremenchug in late January '14. Their "two months of house arrest" consists of wearing electronic bracelets. In Kiev, they say that the prosecutor's opened an investigation. At last report I read they didn't know if it was one person or multiple people who shot him.



The Ukrainian language press is more concerned with the Luhansk Cossacks' asking Putin to send in troops should their families and "their people" be threatened by aggression. Presumably by the West. Luhansk is in the Donbas.

They're also a bit concerned about the "special regime" set up for sections of Kiev, which allows the police to do everything from stop traffic or change traffic patterns to arrest anybody deemed a threat to public order.

Then there's the "greening" of various opposition activists. Splashing green paint in their faces.

[MisterP]

6. any more WesternDemocracyTM breaking out and they'll start tying Polish children to trees

and--y'know...