"Skhemy" lawyers say Ukreximbank attackers are stalling to avoid penalties

The Kyiv Court of Appeal postponed the review of the appeal by "Skhemy" journalists in the case of the attack on their filming crew at the state-owned Ukreximbank in the fall of 2021 for the sixth time, Radio Liberty reports.

The lawyers of the attacked "Skhemy" journalists believe that the defendants (the bank's ex-manager Yevhen Metzher, chief of banking security Ihor Telbizov and chief of internal security Oleh Osipov) and their lawyers may be stalling the proceedings, constantly submitting requests to postpone the review of the case.

According to the lawyers, this may help the defendants avoid penalties, as the statute of limitations expires in October 2024.

The journalists appealed against parts of the previous instance court's ruling in 2022 and ask the Kyiv Court of Appeal to apply an additional penalty to Metzher, namely to deprive him of the right to hold office in state bodies, local self-government, state-owned or communal companies for three years.

On May 29, 2024, the panel of judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeals postponed the hearing of the case once again at Oleh Osipov's request.

"The defendants are almost always the ones to initiate postponement of court hearings. Either due to illness or a business trip. The last hearing, where we started to consider the merits of the appeal, took place back in September 2023, the defendants have asked to postpone the next hearing for this or that reason six times since then," says the "Skhemy" attorney, the chief lawyer at the Institute for Regional Press Development, Oksana Maksymeniuk.

The next hearings at the Kyiv Court of Appeal in this case are scheduled for September 12 and 18.

"And this October – i.e. a month after the next scheduled meeting – the three-year term for prosecution will expire. We see that the constant postponement of the case trial is stalling the final judgement in this case. If that happens, the culprits may never be punished, because they will able to request closure of the proceedings due to the statute of limitations expiring. Such actions violate the victims' right to a fair trial," Oksana Maksymeniuk said.

The attack on "Skhemy" crew at Ukreximbank

On October 4, 2021, employees of the state-owned Ukreximbank attacked the "Skhemy" filming crew as they were recording an interview with the bank's board chairman Yevhen Metzher right in his office in Kyiv. When asked about a loan to structures affiliated with the "DPR," Metzher ordered that the journalists' cameras be taken away, the recordings of the interview be destroyed, and prohibited further filming. Moreover, the journalists were unlawfully detained in the office, not allowed to leave. Ihor Telbizov used violence against the journalists.

There are four defendants in the case: Ukreximbank's former board chairman Yevhen Metzher, the bank's ex-chief of information policy Volodymyr Pikalov, ex-chief of banking security Ihor Telbizov, and chief of internal security Oleh Osipov. They pleaded not guilty.

The actions of the former board chairman of the bank Yevhen Metzger and his press secretary were filed under Article 171 of the Criminal Code ("Unlawful confiscation of materials collected by a journalist and their technical equipment, preclusion of the work of a journalist committed by an official in abuse of authority").

The actions of Ihor Telbizov and Oleh Osipov were filed under two criminal articles – Article 171 and Article 121 ("Deliberate violence that caused physical pain and did not cause bodily harm").

In April 2022, "Skhemy" reported that Metzher was going to be appointed deputy to Minister of Economy Yulia Svyridenko, but the decision was canceled due to the backlash.

On September 14, 2022, the Holosiivsky District Court of Kyiv imposed a fine on three Ukreximbank employees accused of attacking Skhemy journalists Kyrylo Ovsyany and Oleksandr Mazur. Radio Liberty President Jamie Fly said the court's judgement was "a slap on the wrist."

The court convicted and fined the former Ukreximbank board chairman Yevhen Metzher UAH 3,400, and fined Ihor Telbizov and Oleh Osipov UAH 1,700 each.

It was the state-appointed prosecutors that requested this specific punishment – a fine without suspension of the right to hold office.

Volodymyr Pikalov, head of Ukreximbank's information policy department, was also a defendant in the case, but he has been drafted into the army. The court will issue a ruling regarding him later.

The journalists' attorney Anatoliy Popov has said that the victims were contesting the decision to close the proceedings under the most serious Article 146 of the Criminal Code ("Unlawful deprivation of freedom or abduction of a person"), which stipulates restriction of freedom for up to three years or imprisonment for the same term.

In January 2023, the lawyers of the attacked "Skhemy" journalists asked the court of appeal for a harsher punishment for Metzher, namely, to deprive Metzher of the right to hold office in state bodies, local governments, state or communal enterprises for a period of three years.