Law enforcers have detained Ihor Pavlovskyy, a former assistant to ex-MP Mykola Palamarchuk (Petro Poroshenko Bloc), who was suspected of involvement in the murder of the acting manager of the Kherson mayor's office, anticorruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk, according to the website of the Prosecutor-General's Office.
It is noted that Pavlovskyy was informed of a new suspicion as the head of a criminal organisation. In addition to him, eight others were also informed of the suspicion.
Law-enforcement officers conducted about 30 searches in cases of attacks on citizens, during which firearms and other things were seized. At the moment, investigative and procedural actions are ongoing.
Kateryna Handzyuk was doused with concentrated sulphuric acid outside her house in Kherson on 31 July 2019. On 4 November, she died in a hospital. On the same day, the police requalified the case as accomplished murder.
Serhiy Torbin, Viktor Horbunov, Volodymyr Vasyanovych, Vyacheslav Vyshnevskyy and Mykyta Hrabchuk were convicted on charges of attacking Handzyuk. Ihor Pavlovskyy, whom the investigation considers to be an intermediary between the customers and the perpetrators of the murder, is being investigated separately.
The suspects in ordering and organising the attack are Vladyslav Manher and Oleksiy Levin. Their case was suspended in connection after Levin was put on a wanted list.