Watchers say their journalist was asked to leave an open court hearing

The media project Watchers reports that the Darnytsky District Court (Kyiv city) judge Polina Kolyadenko asked their journalist Alina Kondratenko to leave the court hearing on June 5, falsely assuring her that it was a closed session.

The journalist came attend a hearing in the case of Serhiy Fedotov, an Ukroboronprom employee charged with treason. The investigation believes that the man had been sharing data about the movement of UAF units and equipment with his classmate who lives in Russia.

As the media outlet writes, Alina Kondratenko arrived to the hearing early. The court's security wrote her name down in the visitor's log and let her into the building. The journalist entered the hall a security offier pointed her to and asked about the hearing she was interested in. Relying on the court schedule, she left, as there was still some time before the hearing.

However, the hearing started not at 12:30, but at 12:15. When the journalist entered the hall, she saw that the judges were already there, so she went to the seats reserved for the audience and journalists.

The presiding judge asked the journalist who she was. She introduced herself, but, the media outlet writes, the judge replied: "We are holding the hearing in a closed session, please leave the hall."

The journalist noted that the case was listed in the court register as reviewed in an open hearing.

After that, the judge flipped through the case files and, having studied them, said: "Okay, you may stay."

The media outlet also writes that the judge's secretary approached Kondratenko after the hearing and said that journalists must ask the judge's permission to attend open court sessions.

"The fact that the guards let you in – that's permitted. But you should have come to us – to me, the secretary, or to the assistant judge – and asked whether or not you could [be present]," she said.

However, this is not required by any law based on which justice is administered in Ukraine, the media outlet writes. The journalist also asked to justify such a demand in legal terms, but the secretary was never able to do it.

As reported earlier, on January 31, 2024, "Watchers" journalist Alina Kondratenko was barred from attending an open hearing at the Solomyansk District Court of Kyiv in the case about the Motor Sich ex-CEO Vyacheslav Bohuslaev.