Khesron oblast journalist reports death threats to the police
On January 4, journalist Oleh Baturyn from Kakovka filed a statement with the National Police of Ukraine regarding a crime committed under Part 1 of Art. 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – threats or violence against a journalist.
He wrote about this on Facebook and shared the details with the IMI.
According to Baturyn, he did this due to an atypical surge in death threats that he started to receive recently.
"Since it started after the release of a report saying that a current deputy of the Kherson Oblast Council from the European Solidarity party, Valeriy Saltykov, registered his business with the Russians, I believe this wave of death threats to be a response to this material specifically," he wrote.
As Oleh Baturyn told the IMI representative in the Kherson oblast, the death threats come from various people, both anonymous and not, and the senders include other public figures, but all the threats are similar.
"Since the wave of threats began after the material about Valeriy Saltykov was released, I consider him or his associates to be the initiators. They threaten me, try to convince me that Valeriy Saltykov is honest and good, leak my personal data and photos with 'announcements' of sexual character. Prior to that, in 2022–2023, I have received various death threats from anonymous sources, with hints of their origin (collaborators, traitors, Russian citizens). However, these threats were few and far in between. Now I see signs of a deliberate hate campaign and death threats, which I associate with my reporting and the material about Valeriy Saltykov," he said.
According to the regional representative of the IMI, Valeriy Saltykov is in the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson oblast and contacting him for a comment on Oleh Baturyn's words is impossible.
Earlier, the head of the regional European Solidarity branch, Oksana Pohomiy, reported that Valeriy Saltykov would be expelled from the party and an imperative mandate will be applied to him.
The journalist also recalled that he had previously contacted the police regarding death threats due related to his reporting. In 2019, he filed a statement against Pavlo Filipchuk, then a Kherson Oblast Council deputy from the Opposition Bloc, now the head of the occupation administration of Kakhovka. "Then the police was reluctant to even register my statement about death threats from Filipchuk, because, as the policemen explained to me, they were afraid of him," he added.
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