Odessa court postpones trial of Trade Union House tragedy until August 26

A district court in the Black Sea port of Odessa has postponed until August 26 the reviewing of the criminal case on mass riots in the city on May 2, 2014.

“The trial has been postponed until August 26,” lawyer of one of the defendants Kirill Shevchuk said on Tuesday. According to him, today’s hearing did not take place, because one of the lawyers of the defendants did not turn up and also because of the lack of authority of one the interpreters.

On May 2 last year, radicals from the Right Sector nationalist group officially recognized as extremist and banned in Russia set fire to a tent camp in Odessa where local residents were collecting signatures for holding a referendum on Ukraine’s federalization and granting Russian the status of a state language. The supporters of federalization took refuge in the House of Trade Unions, but radicals surrounded the building and set it on fire killing 48 and injuring over 200 people.

The authorities conducted an investigation into these events recognizing 22 people as the instigators of the clashes and unrest. Half of them are in custody, another 11 people have been placed on the wanted list.