Yanukovych demands immediate probe into beating of journalist Tetiana Chornovol

KYIV, December 25 /Ukrinform/. President Viktor Yanukovych has ordered Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko and Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka to take comprehensive measures to investigate the beating of journalist Tetiana Chornovol, the president's press office said in a statement.

"The President of Ukraine has strongly condemned the violence and said law enforcers must solve this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice," a statement reads.

A reminder that last night journalist Tetiana Chornovol was severely beaten. Police have opened criminal proceedings.

Spokesman for Kyiv's region police Mykola Zhukovych also revealed some of the details of the incident. According to him, last night at around 00.40, 400 meters from the capital on the Kyiv - Boryspil highway, traffic policemen found a car off the highway, and a battered woman nearby. The policemen applied first aid to the woman and called an ambulance car.

According to journalist Tetiana Chornovol, she was driving her own Chevrolet Aveo in the direction from Boryspil to Kyiv, when she noticed that she was being followed by an unknown dark-colored jeep. The driver of the suspicious vehicle began pressing her to the sidelines. When Chornovol stopped, several men from the jeep smashed the rear window of her car, removed her and started beating her, and then threw the woman in a ditch. However, the reporter could not see the attackers.

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