Odessa - Kyiv, February 25 (Navigator, Mikhail Ryabov) - In Odessa, the court decided to release Igor Markov from custody. A former member of the Party of Regions faction was arrested on charges of a fight with Ukrainian nationalists – opponents of the monument to Catherine II in Odessa.
The court adopted the verdict on the basis that the day before, the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Alexander Turchynov, canceled the decision to cancel Markov’s deputy card.
Judge Alexei Kaplya initially avoided holding the meeting in every possible way - today in parliament there were calls not to release Markov, whom supporters of the revolution consider a “Ukrainophobe.”
However, Markov’s associates who came to court forced the judge and prosecutor to hold a hearing. The verdict was announced after 2,5 hours of deliberation. People greeted the news with chants of “Odessa!”
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“The prosecutor tried to leave the courtroom. People don't let me pass. The prosecutor is angry. He was clearly tired, a little scared, and clearly really wanted to go to the toilet. The residents of Odessa quietly murmur: pys-pys-pys...”, City Council deputy Alexander Vasiliev told how the gathered people forced officials to fulfill their duties.
Now relatives and lawyers are heading to the pre-trial detention center where Markov is being held, the politician’s press service told Navigator.