MENU
Documenting
war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Secret road repairs

10.04.2013   

 

The Internet site Prestupnosti.net reports that on 8 April, before a visit by President Yanukovych, Mykolaiv police officers tried to detain a journalist photographing road repairs.

It had previously been reported that the authorities were preparing for Yanukovych’s visit by patching up roads and painting road barriers.

The journalist, who is not named, from the Ukrainian Media Group information agency, was photographing the road repairs and diversion of traffic when three people came up and asked what he was photographing. They then tried to delete the photos, still without identifying themselves.  The journalist was then approached by three other people, two in uniform – one police, the other from the Berkut special forces.  Then another police lieutenant got involved. Without indicating what the journalist had done wrong, they suggested that he might have photographed something “secret”, and tried to get him to go with them to the police station.

The Head of Ukrainian Media Group arrived,  While he tried to understand what was going on, the Berkut man, Police Captain Anatoly Horbunov continued to present arguments why he mustn’t take photos in the city centre.  Horbunov said that the journalist had been “noticed” in different places. “You’ve been seen repeatedly in different places and we can therefore suspect that you want something … to uncover unneeded information where you should.  Don’t you forget your boundaries”,

On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said that it was looking into the reports.

Horbunov has refused to speak to the media. 

 Share this