Kharkiv court bans any advertising of Lutsenko’s rally

The Dzherzhynsky District Court in Kharkiv has placed a ban on advertisements in the mass media for the rally of the civic movement “Narodna samooborona” [“People’s Self-Defence”] in Kharkiv on 16 March, the movement’s press service informs.

The report states that “on 12 March a decision was taken by the City Executive Committee that the political action could not be held”. According to the report, the City Executive Committee approached the court on that day with an administrative suit regarding the planned mass events on Freedom Square in Kharkiv on 16 March.

According to the respondent’s lawyer Svitlana Shybalova, the court partially allowed the claim, by banning any preparation for the rally and any advertisements in the mass media, as well as campaigning notification of the event.

“However as regards the rally itself, there is no mention of this in the court’s ruling”, the lawyer stated. The report says that the court ruling is most likely to be appealed.

Former Minister of Internal Affairs Yury Lutsenko who founded the civic movement “People’s Self-Defence” a few months ago, has already visited 16 regions where he answered questions from the local media and also spoke at rallies of the movement’s supporters.

The visit to Kharkiv (as is now quite clear to everybody – translator!) is scheduled for this Friday, 16 March.