Odessa Mayor pushed off Radio Free Europe correspondent at briefing

The Odessa Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov pushed off the journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Mykhail Shtekel and went out of the press briefing of the 27th of December. The persons who would be identified as the Mayor guards pulled away the journalist, as to Radio Free Europe. The incident happened after the court hearing within the case charging the Mayor and some other functionaries with appropriating of 185 millions of hryvnias ($ 6 millions 851 thousands) from the municipal budget. When the Radio Free Europe correspondent was going to ask a question to the Mayor, the politician approached him and pushed him off without listening to him and told that he “had already finished”. Some unknown persons tried to pull the journalist away, some of them ofteh were accompanying the Mayor at the court hearing. Then, the law enforcement agents arrived to the spot, they were saying to the people the journalist wished to fight with the Mayor. Mykhail Shtekel told to IMI correspondent that Trukhanov was trying to quit the location and pushed him away by force. The guards of the Mayor did not wear the uniform. He added he would lodge a complaint with the police.