The newspaper “Antenna” won the process against the head of the Cherkassy oblast directorate for fighting the organized crime

Aleksandr Mikisha, the first deputy of the Cherkassy oblast militia directorate and the head of the Cherkassy oblast directorate for fighting the organized crime (DFOC), demanded in his claim against the newspaper “Antenna” the compensation of moral damage equal to 80 thousand, public apology of the editor and publication of the refutation. The claim of the official against the newspaper was considered by judge T. Korshunova of the Sosnovskiy court of Cherkassy.

Aleksandr Mikisha accused “Antenna” of the publication of the article “General Kochegarov will go away and will not return” (8 May 2002), which read: “It is rumored that after 1 May general Kochegarov will go on leave and will not return back, and his post will be passed to… colonel Aleksandr Mikisha, the head of the DFOC. According to the rumors, the latter is already accepting the congratulations.” Mikisha insisted that the editorial board had the goal to provoke the conflict between the militia officers. “And in the article “General Kochegarov became a hostage of militia intrigues” the newspaper deliberately misinformed the public about the actions and crimes that I did not commit”, stated A. Mikisha.

In his claim Mr. Mikisha points out that “the facts adduced in the article “General Kochegarov became a hostage of militia intrigues” are inauthentic, since I have no acute conflict with O. Kochegarov, the head of the Cherkassy oblast militia directorate. I also did not commit the crimes, of which the newspaper accused me, such as the control over some part of local criminal business, organizing the unsuccessful attempt at Kochegarov’s life and driving him to suicide with the purpose to occupy his post”. The claim contains an excerpt from the article, from which Aleksandr Mikisha drew the above-mentioned conclusions: “Lately O. Kochegarov had the permanent conflict with a number of local militia officers, who were displeased with his attempts to stop their illegal actions. Many people say that the administration of the local DFOC, with which O. Kochegarov always had not very good relations, controls some part of criminal business in Cherkassy. Yet, this organization also has a certain potential for the conduction of special operations. It would not be surprising if, after the dismissal of Kochegarov, his post will be occupied by an officer of the DFOC. By the way, several minutes ago the press conference has finished in the prosecutor’s office of the Cherkassy oblast. One more note found at a place of occurrence was mentioned at the press conference. The note reads: “You wanted to occupy this post? You will occupy it.” Perhaps, it is one more proof of the fact that Kochegarov tried to kill himself. Whom did he mean? Maybe the head of the local DFOC?”

On 30 May 2003 the Sosnovskiy court of Cherkassy issued the decision: it refused to satisfy A. Mikisha’s claim.

The Institute of mass information, 03 June 2003, http://imi.org.ua/