Pressure on Kyiv journalist: police identify possible perpetrators
Kyiv police have identified five individuals involved in “exerting pressure” on an investigative journalist but no one has been detained as of Sunday.
The Kyiv Police Department reported this on Facebook, Ukrinform saw.
The journalist in question is Yuriy Nikolov, who specializes in exposing various corruption schemes. He was the one highlighting in early 2023 alleged violations of food procurement procedures by Ukraine’s defense ministry.
Residents of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy regions are believed to be complicit in the crime.
Law enforcement officers have already searched the homes of those complicit and now further “investigative actions” are ongoing in relation to the individuals in question.
"On January 15, the perpetrators arrived in Kyiv and came to the house where the victim lives, plastered the door with post-it notes and demanded that the person come outside, to confront him. The perpetrators recorded their actions on their own mobile devices," the statement reads.
Metropolitan police identified those involved in the incident and seized material evidence, in particular, computer hardware and mobile phones that were used to film the incident.
The statement notes that law enforcers are running a “comprehensive” and “impartial” inquiry.
No arrests were reported.
As reported by Ukrinform, on January 15, an acclaimed investigative journalist Yuriy Nikolov, who regularly covers various corruption cases, said he had been targeted in an intimidation campaign: on January 14, a group of unidentified men attempted to get into his Kyiv apartment while he was away, vandalizing the door with inscriptions such as “draft dodger” and “traitor”, leaving the journalist’s mother terrified and neighbors confused.
Shortly after the incident, a number of Telegram channels circulated provocative reports claiming the Ukrainian military had issued a draft notice to the journalist in question.
In this regard, journalists and entire editorial offices, members of the Media Movement, called on the President to strongly condemn the campaign of intimidation targeting independent journalists and media investigators and to take under personal control the investigation of such crimes.
President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized in a public address that any pressure on journalists was unacceptable.
The police launched criminal proceedings into exerting pressure on a journalist in connection with their professional activities (Part 2 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).