Court acquits the man charged with death threats to journalist Inna Biletska
The Rivne City Court acquitted Andriy Buzynarsky, who had been charged with death threats to journalist Inna Biletska. The court also closed the proceedings in the case, which the prosecutor's office did not object to.
According to the regional IMI representative, the Rivne City Court issued the ruling on January 10, 2024.
The ruling states that Andriy Buzynarsky filed a motion to acquit him and close the proceedings in the case due to the expiration of the prosecution deadline.
"The prosecutor did not object to closing the case due to the statute of limitations expiring," the judgement reads.
Inna Biletska reported on Facebook that the case has been closed, mentioning Buzynarsky's death threats. "He says that he would give a couple of dollars to his guys and they would kill me. He asks i have any children, calling them orphans and me, a corpse," the journalist recalled.
"Threaten people all you want. Drink, use and, if you can, sell drugs. Then just stall a little and send your daddy to solve everything," Biletska wrote about the case closing.
The IMI contacted the Rivne Oblast Prosecutor's Office for a comment, to get an explanation as to why the Prosecutor's Office did not object to closing of the proceedings and why the terms of prosecution had expired.
On August 11, 2018, in Rivne, Andriy Buzynarsky, son of politician Viktor Medvedchuk's associate, threatened TRC UA:Rivne journalist and producer Inna Biletska, who was filming a car accident, with physical violence. Buzynarsky Jr. had caused the accident. He told the journalist the following: "You will be a corpse at best, a cripple at worst. You have any children?"
The police added the information on the incident into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations under Part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ("Threat or violence against a journalist"). Later, the investigator probing the case died, essentially halting the progress until June 2021.
Over three years after the case was opened, IMI learned that the police and the prosecutors were giving contradictory statements and shifting the blame onto each other.
In September 2022, the Rivne District Prosecutor's Office notified Andriy Buzynarsky of suspicion for assaulting against a journalist; the search for another suspect, who was hiding from the investigation, continued. Later, Buzynarsky was detained and placed in a pre-trial detention center. In October 2022, the prosecutors submitted an indictment to court.
Andiry Buzynarsky joined the National Guard of Ukraine while his case was being tried.
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