In Odesa region, editor in chief of newspaper "Naddnistrianska pravda" was cruelly beaten

In Ovidiopol (Odeska oblast), journalist and chief editor of local newspaper “Naddnistrianska pravda”, Roman Varshanidze, was cruelly beaten. He says this is related to his professional activities, “Dumska” reports. According to Varshanidze, the incident took place on August 25, about 21:30. “When I was returning home, I was assaulted by people armed with iron clubs. After being hit in my head, I started defending myself, and this caused one of the attackers to lose his car keys, which enabled identifying him very expediently”, the journalist said. As Varshanidze said, the attackers are already detained. He said that they are from Chornomorsk city, they are athletes from a kickboxing club. There were three of them in total: two were attacking, one was watching over Varshanidze's movements. As police clarified, the editor was attacked when he was going home in his car. On the road he saw a car force stopping device, he stopped and came out of the car. At this moment, he was attacked by three masked men with clubs. Criminal process was started on this case based on part 2 of article 345-1 - “threat or violence against journalist”. The investigators work on identifying the person who ordered the attack. As “Naddniprianska pravda” reports, the attackers “turned out to be Artem Trenin and Serhiy Kultenko. The name of the third participant is kept secret for now”. Varshanidze said that the attack must be related to his professional activities. “I absolutely think that the attack is due to my professional activities,: discovering illegal waste disposals, catching local council members as they set up an illegal quarry, construction works done without any permits, barbaric chopping of trees in the Military District, misuse of land plots,    failure to pay fully lease to the budget for the best lands in the rayon,    distribution of cash flow to their own people - the list is far from being complete”, Varshanidze said.