AntAC may have accounts blocked if it publishes investigation into real estate of brother of SBI Director Sukhachov
The State Enforcement Service has opened proceedings against the Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC) based on a Pecherskyi Court ruling banning the publication of an investigation into 143 real estate properties owned by the brother of SBI Director Oleksii Sukhachov, Oleksandr Sukhachov. Their accounts may now be blocked.
This was reported by AntAC, Censor.NET informs.
What is known?
Earlier, Judge Serhii Vovk banned AntAC and Slidstvo.Info from publishing information about the property of Sukhachov’s brother.
The plaintiff, Parkovyi-2 LLC, after Judge Vovk’s ruling, appealed to a state enforcement officer with the ruling on securing the claim. Enforcement proceedings were opened on its basis.
The enforcement officer may now fine AntAC or even block the Center’s accounts if the ban set out in the ruling is violated. That is, if information is published online about the property status of Oleksii Sukhachov’s brother, the details of his acquisition of real estate assets, and the sources of their financing.
It is noted that the enforcement proceedings were opened only against AntAC, although the court ruling also applies to the organization’s journalist Alina Stryzhak and Slidstvo.Info.
"We see this as a continuation of pressure on the organization, along with the opening of two more criminal proceedings. One concerns the alleged embezzlement of U.S. funds, which the Prosecutor General’s Office under Shokin launched against AntAC back in 2016 and closed the same year. The second is a new investigation against Vitalii Shabunin. Taken together, all this is a new attack on AntAC," said AntAC Executive Director Dariia Kaleniuk.
"AntAC views the opening of these enforcement proceedings solely as another attempt to exert pressure on the organization in connection with its work to promote systemic reforms of the SBI and the prosecutor’s office," the organization added.
Background
- Earlier, it was reported that Slidstvo.Info, together with the Anti-Corruption Action Center, was preparing to publish an investigation into 143 real estate properties owned by the brother of SBI Director Oleksii Sukhachov, businessman Oleksandr Sukhachov.
- The Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv banned the dissemination of information about Sukhachov’s property, deals, and investments.
- According to AntAC, the ruling is a measure to secure a claim and was issued even before the claim itself was filed.
- AntAC said the ruling "is a significant attack on freedom of speech that contradicts Ukraine’s European integration commitments" and announced its intention to appeal it.
