Police officers detained a private entrepreneur and handed him a suspicion notrice of an attack on the journalists of the Stop Corruption project, who were preparing a story about illegal sand mining in the Kyiv region. The press service of the National Police of Ukraine reports this.
"During the search operations, employees of the Department for the Protection of the Public and State Interests of the National Police, together with employees of the Vasilkovska police, identified the attacker. He turned out to be a private entrepreneur, whose company was mining the sand at the scene. Now the police are checking the legality of the extraction of these minerals,” the message says.
It is also noted that the businessman was informed of the suspicion under Art. 345-1 (threat of violence against a journalist) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The sanction of the article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to five years.
At the same time, the Stopkor news agency notes that it is about a private entrepreneur Valery Samofal, because on the same day, June 7, in the village of Plesetske, it was this man who was chasing activists and journalists of the project with a branch. One of the journalists was hit in the neck. He was taken to the hospital and received medical attention.