Father of jailed son held in Nozdrovska slaying

Yuryy Rossoshanskyy, the father of Dmytro Rossoshanskyy,
has been arrested for the murder of the lawyer Iryna Nozdrovska, RFE/RL
reports. The elder Rossoshanskyy threatened Nozdrovska in public at a Dec. 27
court hearing in which his son’s appeal of his 7-year prison sentence for
killing Nozdrovska’s sister in a drunk driving accident was denied. Iryna
Nozdrovska disappeared on Dec. 29 and the incident has raised international
attention to the state of Ukraine’s judiciary as Dmytro Rossoshanskyy is the
nephew of a Kyiv Oblast district judge.

Yuryy Rossoshanskyy has admitted to killing Iryna
Nozdrovska. However, Ukrayinska Pravda reports that her lawyer, Oleksandr
Panchenko, has called for a thorough investigation of her killing given his
doubts that Yuryy acted alone. He pointed to the unlikely prospect of the 64
year-old defendant carrying Nozdrovska’s body for a kilometer and a half on his
own.

James Hydzik: The Nozdrovska case will continue to attract attention inside Ukraine and out. Despite the issues with the judiciary that have
not been reformed by the Poroshenko administration, we hold that a high profile
case such as the murder could provide an opportunity for the government to show
that it can properly handle justice, even without changing the status quo.