Attack on Luhansk journalist by Kharkiv tax police officers

14.09.2005

On 28 July 2005 men with machine guns accompanied by some people in civilian clothes identifying themselves as officers of the Kharkiv regional tax militia stormed an office situated on the Oboronnaya street. They conducted an illegal search of the office and inflicted bodily injuries on a young employee of the newspaper “Luganchane”.

On 28 July 2005 men with machine guns accompanied by some people in civilian clothes, who said that they were officers of the Kharkiv regional tax militia, stormed an office situated on the Oboronnaya street. They showed a court warrant for search in the office of the private firm “Vtormet”, issued by the Kyivskiy district court of Kharkiv, communicated the informational agency “Parallel-Media”. At the moment of the attack editorial boards of two mass media, the newspaper “Luganchane” and the informational agency “Parallel-Media”, were moving into the same office. As a result of the actions of the attackers injuries were inflicted to Vadim Kondratov, an under-age worker of the newspaper “Luganchane”. Lawyer of the newspaper “Luganchane” Oleg Krylov declared that the actions of law-enforcers were illegal. Then the Kharkiv tax militiamen answered that judge had made a mistake in the protocol, but in spite of that the search in the office was held. Two TV groups, in particular the shooting group of the Lugansk regional TV company, came to the place of incident.

Valeriya Kondratova, a deputy editor of the newspaper “Luganchane”, commented these events for the informational agency “Cxid.info” as follows: “Everything has changed in the country, but it seems that this does not concern tax militia. The people have changed, but the tactics and methods are the same. Militia interrogates a minor without advocate and teacher, deprives him of the right for phone call, and does not permit people, who are not arrested, to leave the office”.

According to the information of “Parallel-Media”, the victims of the arbitrary actions of tax militia turned to the Leninskiy district militia department, where two cases were instituted. The first case concerns the infliction of bodily injuries to minor Kondratov (the fact that the injuries were inflicted has been already confirmed by forensic expertise). The second case was started after the fact of the illegal conduction of search and seizure of documents having no connection with criminal case. Besides, a group of Lugansk advocates directed a complaint to the Kyivskiy district court of Kharkiv, which had issued the warrant for this search.

Lugansk regional branch of public organization “Voters’ committee of Ukraine”