Police ordered to resume investigation into violent threats to Sumy's CUKR

A District Prosecutor's Office of Sumy city resumed the investigation into death threats to the journalists of the local media outlet "CUKR", which the police had closed on December 5, 2023.

Having learned about the case being closed, the IMI contacted the police for a comment and received confirmation of this information.

Volodymyr Krupetskikh, the head of communications at the National Police Office in Sumy, informed the IMI representative that the case was closed due to "the lack of corpus delicti."

"Yes, the case has been closed, but the decision to close it has been submitted to the prosecutor's office for review," said Krupetskikh.

However, Natalya Naumenko, the press secretary of the Sumy oblast prosecutor, noted in her comment to the IMI representative that the prosecutor's office reopened the case on January 11.

"On January 11, the District Prosecutor's Office of Sumy city canceled the decision to close this case. The pre-trial investigation is underway, the prosecutor has instructed the investigator," said Naumenko.

CUKR editor-in-chief Oleksiy Tucha told the IMI that was unaware that the case had been closed.

"I was not informed about that, not by phone at least, so I did not know about the decision. But I am glad that they are continuing to work on this, because we still want to reach a fair solution to the problem," he said.

As reported by IMI, on July 12, unknown persons were threatening to destroy the office of the Sumy media outlet "CUKR" following their material about the life of the local LGBTQ+ community and later called for the journalists' murder, posting a "hit list" with the names of the editorial team.

The Sumy Oblast Police opened a case over these death threats in response to a statement filed by "CUKR" journalists (under Part 1 Article 345-1 of the CCU).