A court in Kyiv has sentenced the former head of the regional council in the southern region of Kherson, Vladyslav Manher, and a former aide to a regional lawmaker, Oleksiy Levin, to 10 years in prison each in the high-profile case of a deadly attack on anti-corruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk in 2018.
The Dnipro district court sentenced Manher and Levin on June 26 after finding them guilty of ordering and organizing the deadly attack that caused a public outcry five years ago.
The court also ordered Manher and Levin to pay 15 million hryvnyas ($403,200) to Handzyuk's parents as compensation.
Kateryna Handzyuk, a 33-year-old civic activist and adviser to the mayor of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, died in November 2018 -- three months after she was severely injured in an acid attack.
In June 2019, five men were sentenced to prison terms of between three and 6 1/2 years for executing the attack, after they made plea deals with investigators.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Mourners paid their respects to slain Ukrainian activist Kateryna Handzyuk in the Black Sea port city of Kherson. They laid flowers at Handzyuk's casket during a public viewing ahead of her funeral on November 7, 2018. The 33-year-old activist died three days earlier from wounds she suffered from an acid attack in July.
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Ukrainians Mourn Slain Activist Targeted In Acid Attack
A year later, amid demands by the public, human rights watchdogs, and Western diplomats to bring the planners of the attack to justice, investigators arrested Manher and charged him with involvement in ordering the deadly attack.
Manher has denied the accusations.
Levin was located in Bulgaria at the time. He was later extradited to Ukraine at Kyiv's request and arrested on suspicion of ordering and organizing the attack.
Kateryna Handzyuk's death came amid a wave of attacks on Ukrainian civic activists. Human rights activists have accused law enforcement agencies of failing to thoroughly investigate the cases and even of possible complicity in some of the attacks.
The United States and the European Union called the attacks against activists unacceptable and urged the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.