Expose the raiders. Mission possible: a lawyer from the “Svoi Lyudy” project helped a journalist obtain data for an investigation through the court

The project lawyer of “Our People” Vitaliy Husak secured, through the court, a requirement to consider the public information request and provide a response. This concerns a request from journalist Olena Mudra regarding paid land taxes—as part of an investigation into suspected raiding of villagers’ land in Transcarpathia.

While researching the story of a suspected raiding of more than 2000 hectares of peasant lands by the Agro-Industrial Group “Zakarpatskyj Sad,” Olena Mudra submitted a request to the Tax Service in Transcarpathia and asked for copies of land tax declarations.

However, the State Tax Service refused and called this information confidential. “Their response was very important for the investigation, because unknown people with the help of ‘titushky’ were taking away the lands from dozens of villagers who had ownership rights and had been farming there for years,” Olena notes.

Then the journalist approached Vitaliy Husak, a lawyer with the project “Our People,” who helped her prepare a lawsuit.

As a result, the Zakarpattia Regional Administrative Court satisfied the journalist’s claim, found the tax authorities’ actions unlawful, and ordered a reexamination of the request and a reasoned response.

Reminder: any journalist and activist can seek legal consultation on the “Our People” platform.