Man who left a funeral wreath at a journalist's front door arrested in Rivne

A court in Rivne arrested a local man aged 25 for two months on the suspicion of leaving a funeral wreath at the front door of journalist Vlad Isayev's apartment. This was reported by the Rivne Oblast National Police, the Rivne Oblast Attorney and Suspilne.

The trial was held on December 19. The suspect was born in Volyn oblast and has been living in Rivne for several years. The court ruled to detain him for 60 days with the possibility of being released on bail in the amount of 414 thousand hryvnias.

He is suspected of death threats and threats of violence to a journalist due to their legal reporting upon prior conspiracy by several persons (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). According to the police, he was the perpetrator of the crime.

The law enforcers say that they spent several months identifying the persons involved and collecting the evidence. According to them, the crime was carefully planned and the criminals acted as conspirators. However, the police have identified and tracked the cars and traffic routes of potentially involved persons, their communication circle and mobile traffic.

"Hundreds of posts on social media and in Telegram channels were analyzed, 19 witnesses were questioned, about 10 authorized searches, several forensic examinations, as well as other investigative and procedural actions were carried out," the attorney's office notes.

A suspicion notice was sent to the man's mother on December 14, as he had been in hiding for a long time, but he came to the police office on December 18. The man is not helping the investigation and has not provided any evidence.

"Yesterday (December 18. – Ed.), after a suspicion notice was sent to his mother, the man came to the investigator. However, he refuses to provide any explanations on the basis of Art. 63 of the Constitution of Ukraine," said Svitlana Karachun, an expert at the police press office.

The victim, Vlad Isayev, commented to Suspilne: "The police are working, there have been some developments in my case. And that's nice. I hope that the person who ordered this wreath and set my car on fire will also be identified."

As for what may be the reason for the crimes, he does not comment yet.

Vlad Isayev positions himself as the editor of the news agency "Zakhidny Argument". As of July, the website was inactive, and the last post on the media outlet's Facebook page was dated September 21, 2021. At the same time, in his comment to "Chetverta Vlada", Isayev noted that the news agency's website was an auxiliary tool. In June 2023, an article by him appeared on the website "Rivne Vechirne".

As the IMI reported, on July 3, 2023, unknown persons in Rivne placed a funeral wreath at the front door of a news agency's chief editor, Vlad Isayev.

The police opened a case for death threats to a journalist in connection with his legal professional work, classified under part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The funeral wreath incident was reported on Facebook by Isayev: "While our valiant police were looking for (or pretending to be looking for) the people who set my car on fire two weeks ago, this is the 'gift' I found at my door this morning as I went out for a run. The city's safe, you say? Are the 90s coming back?”

Earlier, on June 14, Isayev's car was set on fire. He believed this had to do with his reporting.

In his comment to IMI, Vlad Isayev noted that he was an editor at the news agency "Zakhidny Argument", although the agency no longer has a website. The last post the news agency's Facebook page was made back in 2021.

Isayev used to be a reporter for the newspaper "Rivne Vechirne", an editor for the website "Press Center", and the founder of the Telegram channel "Stierlitz", which posts revealing information about the government.

Back then, the police opened a case for deliberate damage to property by way of arson (Part 2 of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).