Businessman shot dead outside Kiev courthouse

A Russian businessman allied with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was fatally shot as he left a Kiev courthouse today, a city police spokesman said.

A police officer who was escorting Maksim Kurochkin was seriously wounded in the incident, which occurred during a break in Kurochkin’s extortion trial, Kiev police spokesman Volodymyr Polishchuk said.

Kurochkin died on the spot after being shot by an unidentified gunman outside Svyatoshynsky District Court, Polishchuk said.

No further details were immediately available.

Kurochkin, who ran an organisation that supported Yanukovych during the bitter 2004 presidential campaign and the Orange Revolution mass protests, was arrested last November at Kiev’s airport.

The businessman’s trial, which began last month, has been closely watched due to his ties to Yanukovych.

Kurochkin had said the case against him was fabricated.