Two journalists resigned from police attestation commission in Volyn in protest

On February 27, the attestation commission for consideration of appeals in Western region No.2, whose job is to consider appeals of police officers in Volyn, had two of its members, both journalists, resigned from the commission as a protest against failure to fire from police one of notorious officials. The relevant resignation requests were filed by the journalist of Hromadske Radio Iryna Musiy and the editor-in- chief of Rivne Agency of Journalist investigations and portal “The Fourth power” Volodymyr Torbich, “The Fourth Power” reports.

The media outlet reminds that, as a part of the process of police reform, in the regions of Ukraine attestation commissions conduct re-attestation of officers and officials of police. A half of such commissions consists of members from local communities – journalists, lawyers, and civil activists. The commission members who resigned as a protest claim that the commission satisfied the petition of one of the officials notorious for his corruption, who was fired by the previous tier commission before. Iryna Musiy also added that she received threats related to her membership in the commission several days before, and she thinks that the commission members were intimidated into satisfying the notorious official's petition. After the journalists resigned, the commission, consisting now of four police officers and a city council member, continues to function, as this number is a sufficient quorum for voting.