Vsevsit Publishing Company names “buy out” unlawful

The Prosecutor has started a check into the sale of the premises of the Vsesvit Publishing Company which had a visitation from unidentified individuals on Thursday which led to the 83-year-old Editor ending up in hospital.

The Deputy Editor Dmytro Drozdovsky announced at a press conference on Saturday 28 April that the people were tried to seize the premises claim that they have bought up 60% of Vsesvit’s founding capital.

Mr Drozdovsky points out that this can in no way justify the actions of the raiders since current legislation guarantees the first right to buy shares in the company to its members. The premises belongs to share company “Vsesvit Publishing Company” with 40% of the shares being owned by its members. It was impossible without their consent to take any decisions regarding the publishing company’s property or its managerial bodies.

According to the Chief Editor, Oleh Mykytenko, the raiders claimed that former employees had sold their shares and that the buyer was a businessperson whose name is associated with the disappearance of another well-known Ukrainian journal “Vitchyzna”, the editorial office of which was in the same building as Vsesvit.

“Three people suddenly appear, say that they’re lawyers representing those former employees of Vsesvit who haven’t worked here for a long time but who still remain members of the share company”, Mr Mykytenko says.  He adds that they asserted that the premises were no longer owned by the journal.

The journal’s lawyer says that the Pechersky District State Administration had received a fake protocol from a meeting supposedly held on 26 April re-electing the President of Vsesvit.

“The raiders knock on the doors of state bodies using fake documents. We make a personal appeal to the President of Ukraine to intervene in the situation and stop the unlawful actions of the raiders in the Pechersky District Administration.”

Dmytro Drozdovsky stated that they had already gained support from a number of MPs, the Kyiv City State Administration; the Ministry of Culture of Armenia; the Ukrainian Section of the International PEN-Club and other organizations.

He added that the day before the journal’s management had lodged a formal complaint with the Pechersky District Police over the raider seizure of the premises.

The City Prosecutor says that it is carrying out a check into the events of 26 April and the purchase and registration of property rights in other people’s names.