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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Case Regarding Attack on Schemes Journalists: Defendants Plead Not Guilty
The preparatory hearing concluded in the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv in the case concerning the attack on the Schemes film crew at Ukreximbank.
This was reported by a correspondent #Букв.
Among the defendants are the bank’s former chairman of the board, Yevhen Metzger, as well as Ihor Telbizov, Volodymyr Pikalov, and Oleh Osipov. Recall that Telbizov and Osipov were dismissed from their positions, and Metzger submitted his resignation voluntarily.
The injured parties are cameraman Oleksandr Mazur and journalist Kyrylo Ovsyanyi. Schemes’ lawyer is Anatolii Popov. The judge is Mykola Didyk.
After the indictment was read aloud, the defendants stated that they do not plead guilty.
Attack on Schemes
Journalists of the Schemes program — investigator Kyrylo Ovsyanyi and cameraman Oleksandr Mazur — were attacked at Ukreximbank while recording an interview with chairman of the board Yevhen Metzger in his office. The journalists recorded the moment of the attack on the cameras used to film the interview. Bank employees deleted those recordings, but the journalists were able to recover the files with the help of technical specialists.
The attack occurred after a question was asked about a suspicious loan worth 60 million dollars that the state-owned Ukreximbank granted to an entrepreneur from territory of Ukraine temporarily occupied and controlled by Russian militants.
Ukreximbank initially claimed that the Schemes journalists attempted to unlawfully obtain restricted-access data and used illegal methods to obtain information. The bank also announced plans to appeal to law enforcement.
Kyiv police reported that law enforcement officers are carrying out the necessary investigative actions for an objective and impartial pretrial investigation of the attack on the journalists. A criminal case was opened.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said that “you can’t erase obstruction of journalists from flash drives,” and added that “accountability is inevitable.”
7 in October Metzger apologized for the attack on the Schemes journalists. According to Metzger, these events were a shock to him personally.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Справа щодо нападу на журналістів «Схем»: обвинувачені не визнали провини". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
