The Austrian police officers who detained an Ukrainska Pravda film crew in Vienna smashed the windows of the journalists’ car, injured the cameraman, used rough physical force, and accused the two of being Ukrainian spies, Mykhailo Tkach, one of the detained reporters, said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda chief editor Sevgil Musaieva on the outlet’s YouTube channel.

He said that the detention took place at around 4pm on 8 October, as the film crew was moving between filming locations and stopped at a traffic light.

“At that moment, around seven armed people in masks appeared out of nowhere. They instantly smashed the windows of our car. They held us at gunpoint… They pulled me and Yaroslav out of the car and threw us face down in the middle of the road. Hands behind our backs, they searched us while we lay there. Then they put a kind of tape on our hands instead of handcuffs,” the journalist recounted.

Cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko suffered a facial injury during the attack on the vehicle.

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“I saw with my own eyes glass shards flying into his face before we put our hands up,” Tkach said.

The injured cameraman was taken to hospital immediately after the detention and had his face stitched, after which he was taken back to the police station for questioning.

The journalist stressed that, the plainclothes officers acted harshly despite him repeatedly stating he was a reporter.

“I said, I kept saying, that I was a journalist. One of these people put a knee to my neck and shouted at me to be quiet,” he said.

At the police station, where Tkach was detained for more than 12 hours without explanation, he was given a document setting out the charges to sign.

“Three articles were listed there under which we were accused. One of them was spying for Ukrainian military intelligence. Another was involvement in a criminal organisation. And the third article, as far as I remember, concerned causing harm to Austria,” Tkach said.

He stressed that the Austrian investigators had mistaken his Ukrainian Armed Forces credentials for reporting in combat zones for “proof” of him belonging to military circles or intelligence.

Mykhailo Tkach was released at around 4am on 9 October on a prosecutor’s decision, owing to a lack of evidence of guilt, while the cameraman’s questioning continued. The investigator is convinced that the Austrian security services were manipulated.

“I believe that in this case, too, one of the subjects of our investigations may have misled the Austrian law enforcement system by feeding them some information about our alleged ties to Ukrainian intelligence… in order to obstruct our lawful reporting,” Tkach remarked.

He clarified that the film crew had been searching for former Ukrainian official Ruslan Kravchenko in Vienna.

Previously

Ukrainska Pravda senior investigator Mykhailo Tkach was detained in Vienna, Austria, on 8 October while carrying out an editorial assignment; the whereabouts of his colleague Yaroslav Bondarenko is unclear. The team considers the detention unlawful and demands his immediate release and an official explanation of the Austrian police’s actions.

The Embassy of Ukraine in Austria requested explanations from the Austrian side regarding the detention of Ukrainska Pravda journalist Mykhailo Tkach in Vienna. The Ukrainian consul was later granted access to him and spoke with him.

Ukraine’s MFA reported on 9 October that Mykhailo Tkach had been released following his detention in Vienna, Austria.

Ukrainska Pravda cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko was injured while being detained by police in Vienna, Austria, and has been in hospital.

The Austrian prosecutor later explained that the crew had been detained on suspicion of espionage, which was ultimately not confirmed.