TVi journalist allegedly beaten and robbed by traffic police

Yury Lukanov, Head of the Independent Media Union, has reported that traffic police from the Cobra special unit beat up the editor of a TVi programme “Automandra”.  He says that the incident took place at 8 a.m. on Saturday 31 August in the Kyiv-Svyatoshynsk district.  Minyailo was apparently driving to collect his dog after a complicated operation. He was stopped at traffic lights by the traffic officers.  They checked his documents, and when they found out that he was taking money for an expensive operation, having refused to identify themselves, they asked him to come to their car, no. 0287.  When Minyailo got out and began filming them on his mobile telephone, one of the officers grabbed him from behind by the arms and the other, using foul language, began punching him on the head, chest and stomach. They dragged him into their car, refused to give him the phone so that he could ring his wife and colleagues and threatened him. When he handed over the two thousand UAH he was taking to pay for his dog’s operation, they let him go.

The police have already issued a statement in which they promise a full and objective investigation of what they call the “conflict between journalist Viktor Minyailo and traffic officers”.  The report on their website says that Minyailo accuses the officers of inflicting injuries and taking his money.

Apparently activists from Dorozhny Kontrol [Road Control] are presently trying to restore the film which Minyailo took on his mobile phone before the assault took place.