On 14 November 2021, at around nine in the evening, on Vasyl Moisei Avenue in Lutsk, a drunk Roman Savych drove a Mazda 6 belonging to his wife onto the pavement and struck 60-year-old Oleh Vedmedenko. The Bishop of Volhynia and Galicia died in Lutsk City Clinical Hospital the following morning. The driver did not stop at the scene but went to the car park of the Promin shopping centre, where passers-by and patrol police detained him.
Oleh Vedmedenko was born in Lutsk on 18 September 1961. In 1997 he founded the Bible School of Spiritual Perfection at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, and in 2006 he was ordained a priest in the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In 2012 he was consecrated a bishop, and from 2013 he headed the Volhynia and Galicia diocese. In 2015–2019 he was the primate of the Ukrainian National Autocephalous Orthodox Church, served as rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Lutsk, was a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and wrote several books. On the evening of 15 November a litany was held in his church, and on 16 November the funeral service and burial took place in the church courtyard.
What the court decided
Prosecutor Natalia Havrus asked for Savych to be sentenced to nine years in prison and ten years' disqualification from driving. The court imposed eight years and six months in prison and nine years' disqualification. The court recognised sincere remorse, cooperation with the investigation, admission of guilt on the main charge and apologies to the victim's family as mitigating circumstances. The aggravating circumstance was repeat offending: Savych already had a criminal record.
The previous conviction was for an assault in the summer of 2020. The driver had then used a gas canister against Lutsk municipal security guards and was convicted under part two of Article 350 of the Criminal Code to three years' restriction of liberty. On 19 October 2021 the Volhynia Court of Appeal upheld that sentence, but the punishment had not been enforced. Thus, at the time of the accident he was already under a court sentence.
The defence denied guilt on the second charge. Lawyer Pavlo Poletylo said that his client had cooperated with the investigation, had not absconded, was married, was raising a small child and had positive character references. The court rejected the argument that Savych had not noticed the impact. Judge Ihor Yaselskyi stated that Savych's guilt had been fully proven during the trial.
Two articles and one amendment
The first article under which Savych was convicted concerns the violation of traffic rules by a driver under the influence causing death. The second, Article 135 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, provides for liability for knowingly leaving a person in danger. It was this charge that became the focus of the victim's family's efforts. A video recording of the moment of the accident was published on 17 December 2021, and only after that did the family campaign for the driver's actions to be classified under this article as well. On 24 December 2021, when the investigation was completed, part one of Article 135 was added to the charge.
“We consider the verdict of the Lutsk City and District Court … entirely just,” said Roman Khomych, lawyer for the victim's family.
Khomych called the verdict just and suggested that the defence would appeal it. The victim's son, Vasyl Vedmedenko, a priest and his father's successor at the parish, stated that the family was not seeking compensation for moral damages.
Final words and the road to the verdict
In his final statement, Savych said that he had not known he had hit a person until he saw the ambulance. He called what had happened a lesson for life, apologised to the victim's family and to his own relatives. The court, however, did not consider these words grounds for leniency beyond the mitigating circumstances already taken into account.
The road to the verdict took more than three months. On 16 November 2021, Judge Alla Paliushko ordered Savych to be held in custody for 60 days without bail, until 12 January 2022. On 10 January the term was extended until 10 March 2022. On 7 February Savych stated at a hearing that he had not fled, and on 11 February the court examined witnesses. Two of them, lawyers Ihor Vasyliuk and Maksym Olishchuk, had detained the driver near the shopping centre.
The verdict of the Lutsk City and District Court was the first ruling in a case that had caused a wide public outcry in Lutsk and in church circles during the investigation. On 7 September 2022 the Volhynia Court of Appeal upheld the verdict.
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