Ukrainian National Guardsman Vitaliy Markiv has been sentenced to arrest in absentia by the Basmanny court in Moscow, RF. The court charged him with the murder of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli and Russian activist Andrei Mironov near then-occupied Sloviansk in May, 2014. Markiv was declared internationally wanted by Russian investigators.
“The court has granted the investigation’s request for the arrest in absentia of Vitaliy Markiv, charged under Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder of two or more persons). He will be remanded in custody for two months from the moment of his actual arrest or extradition to the Russian Federation,” reports the court’s press service.
On June 30, 2017, Ukrainian National Guardsman Vitaliy Markiv was arrested in Italy. On July 12, 2019, he was sentenced to 24 years in an Italian prison for alleged complicity in the murder of Italian reporter Andrea Rocchelli in Sloviansk in 2014. On November 2, 2020, the Milan Court of Appeal fully acquitted Vitaliy Markiv, who returned to Ukraine the very next day.
