Three men convicted in Oksana Makar murder; one gets life sentence

A Mykolayiv
court on Nov. 27 ruled that Yevhen
Krasnoschek, 23, Maksym Prisyazhnyuk, 24, and Artem Pogosyan, 22, were guilty
of gang raping, choking and burning Makar on March 9.

Krasnoschek was
given a life sentence, while Prisyazhniuk and Pogosyan got 15 and 14 years in prison,
respectively. Makar’s family lawyer said he plans to appeal and argue for life
sentences for Prisyazhniuk and Pogosyan. The lawyers of Prisyazhnyuk and Pogosyan,
meanwhile, said they intend to ask for lighter sentences.

The three men met Makar in a
bar in Mykolayiv, a provincial capital 400 kilometers south of Kyiv, on the
night of March 8, when the nation celebrates the popular Women’s Day holiday.
They invited her to Prisyazhniuk’s apartment later that night. After drinking
together, they raped the woman. When Makar threatened to report the incident to
the police, Krasnoschek choked her with a wire cable. She was still alive when
the men took Makar to a nearby construction site, threw her in a pit and set
her on fire. Severely burned, Makar lived for three weeks and died of her
wounds on March 29 in a hospital.

Shockingly violent, the case fueled
more public outcry when two of three suspects arrested the next day were
immediately released by the police. The media soon found that at least one of
the released suspects, Prisyazhnyuk, was the son of a local official. It wasn’t
until March 13 that the two were taken back into custody. From that moment, the
public, local and international media followed the case at an unprecedented
level.

The case’s profile again rose when a
video of Krasnoschek was made public that showed him testifying to police in an
unremorseful, matter-of-fact way while describing the murder in great detail.

Oksana Makar died from injuries suffered on March 9 when she was beaten, raped, choked and severely burned. Three men were convicted on Nov. 27 and sentenced to prison in the murder of the 18-year-old Mykolayiv woman.

Krasnoschek
later changed his testimony, claiming it was Prisyazhnyuk, not him, who had choked
Makar, and that he was paid by Prisyazhnyuk’s lawyer to take the blame. He
nonetheless received the most severe sentence, even though all three were
charged with premeditated murder and rape. Krasnoschek was additionally accused
of perverted rape. Krasnoschek is married and has a young daughter; the other
men are single.

The Mykolayiv prosecutor’s
office stated it was satisfied with the court’s decision as the sentences matched
what they had asked.

Previously Prisyazhnyuk’s lawyer,
Anton Dolgov, stated that the prosecution does not have enough evidence to
charge the defendants with murder.

Kyiv Post staff
writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at rudenko@kyivpost.com