(28 Nov 2016) Ukraine's ousted president on Monday testified in the trial of five former special forces policemen charged with fatally shooting scores of demonstrators, and denied giving orders for them to shoot at the protesters.
Viktor Yanukovych, who gave testimony to a Kiev court on Monday from a courtroom in Russia, said he did not give orders to his forces to open fire on protesters, saying he had not received information about shooting on the Maidan at the time.
Between February 18 and 20, 2014, 72 protesters died on the Maidan square, most shot by police or snipers.
There were also 13 deaths among the police and the Ukrainian special forces.
The hearing was originally scheduled for Friday but the judge had to postpone it after nationalist activists blocked the entrance to the jail where the policemen who are on trial were held.
The shootings were the bloody climax of months of demonstrations in Kiev against Yanukovych, who fled to Russia days later.
Yanukovych blamed the reaction on the law enforcement servicemen, the Berkut, some of whom also appeared in court on Monday charged with the shooting of demonstrators.
Their lawyer, Olexander Horoshynsky, said his clients refute many of the charges.


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