Eighteen year old Oksana Makar died Thursday two weeks after her horrific gang rape caused nationwide protests in Ukraine over corruption and elitism of the wealthy.

Makar was raped by three men on March 9 in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine. In order to cover up their crimes, the three men strangled her, took her to an abandoned construction site and set her on fire. A passerby found her the next morning barely alive.

She had burns on over 55 percent of her body and severe damage to her lungs. Doctors had to amputate her feet, a leg and her right arm to stop gangrene.

She died Thursday in a specialist hospital in Donetsk after succumbing to her injuries despite three attempts to revive her.

"Lung bleeding began and then her heart activity stopped. We tried three times to revive her with defibrillation," said Emil Fistal, head of the specialist burns unit to Reuters.

The crime sparked outrage among Ukrainians for its blatant cruelty and obvious favoritism to the wealthy. According to the Associated Press, two of the suspects with powerful connections were initially released by police. The AFP reported that two suspects were sons of wealthy parents who had connections with local officials.

Nationwide protests followed and police re-arrested the men following an intervention from President Viktor Yanukovich.

Feminist group Femen staged a topless protest at the Ukrainian general prosecutor's office in Kyiv. They brandished slogans like "Death to Sadists" and Oksana, Live!" in front of the building's entrance.

The public became especially livid after a video of an interrogation with one of the suspects leaked on the internet. The suspect, named Krasnoschek, calmly described the rape and murder attempt. According to the video after the three men had disposed of Makar -- who they thought was dead at this point -- they went to a supermarket to buy more vodka and after that, stopped at a kiosk for tea.

Last week Makar's mother, Tatyana Surovitska, recorded a video of her daughter asking for the men to be castrated and imprisoned. Watch the video here.

Interior Minister Volodymyr Polishchuk said the three men were being charged with murder in addition to rape. 

Via: ibtimes.com

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