Kropyvnytskyi District Prosecutor’s Office (Kirovohrad oblast) has filed a motion to evict LLC Editorial Office of the Newspaper Narodne Slovo from the premises they rent. Due to errors in the submitted paperwork, the Commercial Court of Kirovohrad Oblast has left the motion without action for now, giving the prosecutors time to correct the problems, reports Pavlo Lisnychenko, the Institute of Mass Information in representative in Kirovohrad oblast, citing the court verdict, which entered into force on 22 September.

The motion by the prosecutor’s office, which represents the interests of the Kirovohrad Oblast Council in this case, concerned the contractual relations between LLC Editorial Office of the Newspaper Narodne Slovo and the city-owned company Regional Center for Service Development. The prosecutors demand that the parties terminate the lease agreement for premises with a total area of ​​713.2 square meters, located at 46/60 Vyacheslav Chornovil Street in Kropyvnytskyi. After that, the newspaper’s team must leave.

Screenshot of the building where Naronde Slovo office is located / Google Maps

Having reviewed the case material, the Commercial Court ruled to leave the motion without action. It was discovered that the documents submitted by the prosecutor’s office contained no evidence of the law enforcers or other persons having in their possession the original documents, copies of which were attached to the claim. The court also took into account other errors.

The prosecutor’s office has 10 days from the date of the verdict being passed to correct the errors.

This is not the first time that the Narodne Slovo team has faced an eviction attempt. In 2021, the newspaper won a lawsuit against the Regional Center for Service Development. The city-owned company demanded that media workers move out of the premises that the newspaper has been leasing since denationalization.

At that time, the newspaper’s chief editor Oksana Hutsalyuk commented that the lawsuit was based on an alleged debt for the use of property. However, she said that the real reason for the legal showdown was the desire of the top Oblast Council officials to regain control over a rather large building in the very center of the city. In turn, chief lawyer of the Kirovohrad Oblast Council, Oleksandr Kulitka, said that the journalist’s claim was incorrect and the allegations unfounded.