Officer who used gas against journalist was suspended from work at mass actions

The police officer who used gas against the journalist of Radio Liberty Serhiy Nuzhnenko, was suspended from working at mass actions. This was reported during the broadcast of Hromadske radio by the head of Kyiv patrol police department Yuriy Zozulya. “Until the internal investigation is over, this person will not participate in mass actions, as I do not consider such actions acceptable and normal. I concede that anything can happen during the mission - misunderstandings, oversights, yet this cannot be a justification for a police officer”, Zozulya said. He also denied that the same police officer served before in the police special unit “Berkut”. Zozulya added that currently in the police they clarify the circumstances of the incident. As IMI reported before, on March 3 in Kyiv, near the building of the Parliament, police officer used gas spray against the correspondent of Radio Liberty, Serhiy Nuzhnenko. According to the journalist, at that moment he was conducting video recording of the morning events near the building of the parliament. At that, he had journalist ID which he held in front of him. The camera was directed to the tents of activists. There were two other journalists - from Hromadske, Bohdan Kutepov, and from Insider, Vlad Krasynskyi – who were covering the events near the tent encampment next to the Parliament, and who also complained about the actions of the police. On March 3, the Prosecutor's office of Kyiv city started a criminal proceeding based on the fact of possible intentional obstruction by the police to professional activities of the journalist of Radio Liberty near the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv.