In Kotovsk, " Party of Regions" members beat journalist

On April 4, at the meeting of the local branch of the Party of Regions in Kotovsk city (Odeska oblast), which took place in the premises of «Silhospupravlinnya» (“Agricultural administration”), the Party of Region members attacked and beat Serhiy Levytanenko, the journalist of the «Svoboda» newspaper and “Telekrytyka” blogger. According to the journalist, the meeting of the Party of Regions was unofficial, the premises were not rented for it, and heads of village administrations used their working time for it. The journalist was attacked, beaten, and chased on the street, stones were thrown at him. He addressed the police on the matter, and a criminal investigation was opened on this case. When he was giving his statement, he received a call from Volodymyr Sinko, the head of the local Party of Regions branch, who demanded an immediate meeting to address the issue, but the journalist refused. After he walked out of the police station, he was attacked by three athletic young men, but managed to flee. Now he is in hiding. His guess is that Volodymyr Sinko plans to act in the Presidential campaign for Petro Poroshenko, and he does not want the video materials the journalist managed to film to be published.