Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court has barred Slidstvo.Info from disseminating information about the assets, transactions, and investments of the brother of the director of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), Kharkiv businessman Oleksandr Sukhachov.
As reported in a Slidstvo.Info article and a statement by the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the court ruling appeared on 6 July—just as an investigation into 143 real estate properties was being prepared for publication.
The journalists see this as pressure and an attack on freedom of speech; they will appeal the decision and will make every effort to ensure the investigation is published.
Slidstvo.Info journalist and co-author of the investigation Maksym Savchuk said work on the piece had lasted several months.
“We found a lot of interesting things—among them, 143 apartments and office premises that belonged or still belong to the elder Sukhachov, and we also uncovered threads leading to the State Bureau of Investigations, headed by his brother Oleksiy Sukhachov,” he said.
According to him, about two weeks ago, Anti-Corruption Action Center journalist Alina Stryzhak sent a request for comment to SBI Director Oleksiy Sukhachov, asking him to comment on the facts uncovered by the journalists. A similar request was also sent to Parkovyy-2 LLC, which is linked to Oleksandr Sukhachov.
Instead of responding to the request, the company turned to the Pechersk court. The application reached the court on Friday, 3 July, and by Monday morning Pechersk court judge Serhiy Vovk granted the application filed by Parkovyy-2 LLC.
“From this decision, we understand that the applicants are preparing a lawsuit over our investigation, which has not even been released yet. And I think that, to make sure it definitely does not come out, they are banning us from publishing anything about the business activities of the SBI chief’s brother. Apparently, they understand very well how much interesting and socially important information we have found,” said Slidstvo.Info editor-in-chief and founder Anna Babinets.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center believes this is how government representatives want to prevent journalists from exposing corruption.
“This is a direct restriction of freedom of speech and a ban on publishing a socially important investigation. We are convinced that right now the Anti-Corruption Action Center and Slidstvo.Info are simply being used to test a tool for banning journalists from exposing corruption. Failure to comply with this decision entails fines; criminal prosecution is even possible, along with a number of other consequences. We will definitely appeal it,” said Anti-Corruption Action Center Executive Director Dariya Kalenyuk.
The article says Judge Vovk concluded that an online publication about the financial status of Oleksiy Sukhachov’s brother, the details of how he acquired real estate assets, and the sources of their financing could cause an individual irreparable harm that could not be remedied after the piece is published. In addition, in the court’s view, this would violate the commercial secrecy of Parkovyy-2 LLC. The court decision indicates that the SBI director’s brother did not grant permission for information about his 143 real estate properties to be disclosed.
Slidstvo.Info will appeal the court decision and will seek the right to publish the investigation, which is of public importance.