Prosecutor General opens a case over Slidstvo.Info journalist summons incident

The Prosecutor General's Office has opened a case over the incident with summons delivery to Slidstvo.info journalist Yevheniy Shulhat, reports the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.

The case was preliminarily filed under Part 1 of Art. 364 (Abuse of authority or office) and Part 3 of Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (obstructing the professional work of journalists); the crime is thought to be committed by SBU officers and Territorial Staffing Center employees.

Pretrial investigation in the proceedings has been entrusted to the Main Investigative Department of the State Bureau of Investigation.

Background

On April 6, Slidstvo.Info reported that an SBU officer may have instructed the army staffing center to deliver a summons to their journalist. In this way, the special services wanted to punish the man for exposing the SBU head of cyber security Illya Vitiuk for owning elite real estate.

The Media Movement demands a police investigation into the SBU and the TSC officers in view of the incident with the Slidstvo.Info journalist.

On April 6, the UAF Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that he had ordered an official inspection into the Slidstvo.Info report about an attempt to serve an army summons to their journalist following his investigation.

The SBU have said they were looking into the report by the Slidstvo.Info team about the the SBU allegedly using TSC officers to put pressure on journalist Yevheniy Shulhat following his investigation into the SBU's head of cyber security, Illya Vitiuk.