Court obliges police to investigate officials of Rivnegaz

Rivne city court obliges the police to open criminal proceeding against officials of JSC "Rivnegaz" because of nonfulfillment court rule on access to public information. The preceeding was open due to complaint of Yuri Horbach, journalist of Internet portal "Chetverta Vlada". Court Judge Krystyna Orekhovska announced this on Jan.12 during the trial, IMIrepresentative in Rivne region informs.

According to Yuri Horbach, he contacted the Department of the National Police of Rivne region with a request to open criminal proceedings against officials of JSC "Rivnegaz." The reason is avoidance of Petro Dubas to provide a copy of his declaration as a head of JSC "Rivnegaz" in 2014 Dubas Peter, at the same time, when he was a member of the Rivne Regional Council.

In "Rivnegaz" noted that the document turned to the head when Dubas withdraw deputy mandate in November 2015.

"We asked the police to verify information if the company returned to Petro Dubas, the Chairman of the Board, his declaration for 2014, because such an action is not provided by any regulatory legal acts", - Yuri Horbach said.
According to "Chetverta Vlada", Petro Dubas, a former member of the Rivne regional council and Chairman of the board of JSC "Rivnegaz", avoids satisfying judgement on giving his declaration of property, income, expenses and financial obligations for 2014 to the journalists. Journalists are trying to get this information since May 2015.

Media lawyer Lyudmyla Opryshko helped the journalist to make a statement on the crime officials "Rivnegaz".

However, according to a IMI representative, the investigation department of National Police in Rivne did not see sufficient information and circumstances indicating the criminal offense and entering data in the Unified Register of pre-trial investigations. They sent appeal to the Department of economic security in Rivne region for checking.

Representatives of police said that representatives of the Commissioner of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Human Rights should complete a report in case officials of "Rivnegaz" broke the law "On Access to Public Information". They sent relevant case file to them.

Decree of the court on 12 January affected only one article - willful neglect of juducual decision. The Court requires the National Police headquarters in Rivne to put information from Yuri Horbach appeal to the Unified Register of pre-trial investigations under Art. 382 Criminal Code of Ukraine.

"The fact that the court obligated to put appeal about the crime to register - is a victory, - Lyudmyla Opryshko said. - This means that the investigator shall start preliminary inquiry on this basis. During the preliminary investigation it has to establish the fact of a crime or, conversely, its absence. In the end, investigator will be able to present a suspicion not only under the 382nd article of the Criminal Code, but also under three other."