MP questions court decision to close Dorozhny Kontrol website

  As reported, on 10 February the Desnyansky District Court in Kyiv issued an order to suspend hosting services to the Dorozhny Control website ((roadcontrol.org.ua) which monitors and posts photos and videos of cases where they allege traffic police, etc are in breach of the law.  The ruling was taken in connection with a civil suit by H. Hetmantsev, Inspector of the Cobra Traffic Police against the owner of Roadcontrol, N. Shaposhnykov. The claimant asserts that the site contains “untruthful information defaming his honour and business reputation”.

The MP, Volodymyr Pylypenko is asking the Head of the High Council of Justice, Vadim Kolesnichenko from the Party of the Regions to check whether the judge who issued the ruling did not act in breach of oath. He suggests that the High Council should decide whether the measure taken was proportionate and whether the closure or blocking of websites falls within the jurisdiction of courts of that level.

Mr Pylypenko asks for the check to be carried out as a matter of priority and for action if it is decided that Judge Salamon acted in breach of oath.

He also believes that the decision to close the site may lead to interruptions in the work of the traffic police’s site.  Judging from media reports this has already happened, with people effectively storming the site causing the server to overload in protest at the court ruling.

Information about the letter from Ukrainska Pravda