"Chetverta Vlada" wins a lawsuit against the enforcement service

"Chetverta Vlada" journalist Oksana Havrysh won a lawsuit against the Enforcement Service Department of the Ministry of Justice. The journalist contested the Ministry of Justice closing the proceedings that would have forced the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office to comply with the court's decision and provide the journalists with public information, reports "Chetverta Vlada".

On August 23, 2024, the Rivne District Administrative Court overruled the decision by the Enforcement Service Department of the Ministry of Justice to close the enforcement proceedings in which the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office was the debtor.

The enforcement department must resume the proceedings against the prosecutor's office unless they decide to appeal the Administrative Court's ruling.

The lawsuit between "Chetverta Vlada" and the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office over access to public information has been dragging on for a year and a half. Photo by "Chetverta Vlada", Vlad Martynchuk

Previously

"Chetverta Vlada" journalist Oksana Havrysh has been suing the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office since January 2023 over the prosecutors' refusal to fully disclose the content of the investment contract for the construction of residential buildings on communal land. The prosecutor's office signed a contract with the Verbud-Rivne LLC from the Stograd group in 2021.

The withholding of information was found illegal by all courts and the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office was ordered to provide it.

Namely, in November 2023, the Rivne District Administrative Court found the withholding of information by the Prosecutor's Office unlawful and ordered them to provide the journalists with information.

In March 2024, in compliance with the judgement, the Prosecutor's Office sent the journalist a copy of the agreement with some parts blurred out. "Chetverta Vlada" disagreed with the answer received and submitted a letter to the Enforcement Service Department in Kyiv.

The enforcement department opened proceedings on May 27. It was handled by the deputy chair of the department, Tetyana Zayets. The proceedings being opened meant that the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office would have to comply with the court's ruling within ten days by sending a copy of the investment contract to the journalist's e-mail and paying the "enforcement fee / basic remuneration for a private enforcer in the amount of 32 thousand hryvnias."

However, on June 13, the proceedings were closed by Tetyana Zayets after the prosecutor's office sent her a letter informing her that they had already implemented the court's ruling "in full".

Yevhen Vorobyov, a lawyer and representative of the NGO "Human Rights Platform", believes that Tetyana Zayets did not take the court's findings into account and closed the enforcement proceedings prematurely, without analyzing the information that was withheld by the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office. In his opinion, the journalists' right to access public information remains violated, and the decision to close the enforcement proceedings prevents the proper execution of the court's ruling.

In view of this, "Chetverta Vlada" appealed the closure of the proceedings in the Rivne District Administrative Court.