A judge of a district court in Kiev, who is hearing a case on the 2014 killings during the Maidan protests, has been attacked in the Ukrainian capital, according to a statement published on the official website of the country’s Council of Judges.

Judge Sergey Dyachuk of Kiev’s Svyatoshinsky District Court was attacked late on Friday near his house. He has been hospitalized, and the attacker fled the crime scene. A search for the assailant is underway.

Dyachuk said in a statement that the attack was linked to his professional activity.

In May 2015, Kiev’s Svyatoshinsky District Court started hearing the case on the merits against five former fighters of the elite Ukrainian Berkut police unit. They are charged with fulfilling a criminal order on using weapons, abuse of power, illegal use of weapons and also carrying out a terrorist attack on the central Maidan square in 2014. The defendants plead not guilty to all counts.