Victory for Freedom of Speech: Appeal Sides with Media in Case Brought by Tax Official from Yanukovych Era – Holovach

The scales of justice are on the side of the media. The Kyiv Court of Appeal 16 September 2026 canceled the decision of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, which had granted the claim of former head of the tax police during Yanukovych’s era Andriy Holovach in proceeding No. 757/23837/19-c concerning protection of honor, dignity, and business reputation. Information about the case hearing is available on the court’s official website.

The appellate panel composed of A.M. Stryzheus (reporting judge), O.I. Shkorina, and L.D. Polyvach issued a new ruling – Holovach’s claim was fully dismissed.

Andriy Holovach is the former head of the tax police who, during Yanukovych’s time, was implicated in a criminal case about the embezzlement of more than 3 billion hryvnias of budget funds in VAT refund schemes and was even detained in 2016, but later managed to have that case closed, as StopCor and other media have repeatedly reported.

According to the investigation by "Stop Corruption TV," Holovach’s family and inner circle likely control a number of valuable business assets, which may include several floors in the capital’s Arena-City business center and an elite cottage community near Kyiv.

It was precisely media publications and comments about the official’s wealth and past that prompted Holovach to file a defamation suit to protect his honor, dignity, and business reputation against well-known journalist Roman Bochkala and other defendants.

How did the court process unfold and what did the first instance decide?

Proceedings in the case were opened as early as January 2021 by Pechersky District Court of Kyiv judge Iryna Hryhorenko. Holovach’s claim related to statements made during an interview with businessman Oleh Averyanov on one of the TV channels, as well as a comment by journalist Roman Bochkala. The plaintiff alleged that he considered these statements to be false and to have violated his honor, dignity, and business reputation.

The case, which StopCor covered, went on for many months, and, according to media observations, Holovach himself systematically failed to appear at hearings, which repeatedly gave the defense grounds to petition to have the claim dismissed. Nevertheless, hearings were repeatedly postponed to later dates.

Commenting on this situation in December 2024, journalist Roman Bochkala noted:

"The courts are coming into play. So, the former head of the tax police Andriy Holovach, who under the regionals collected tribute in the form of percentages of business from Ukrainian enterprises, filed a suit against me and a number of media outlets in the ‘most humane in the world’ Pechersky District Court to protect his honor, dignity, and business reputation. Over the four years of this case’s consideration, Holovach himself did not appear at a single hearing – apparently understanding the groundlessness and hopelessness of his claims," he emphasized.

One piece of evidence in the case was a video recording of the interview on a disc. However, according to the available information, during the proceedings the video file on the disc… did not open – the court was able to play only the audio track. How reliably, under such conditions, the court could determine that a particular voice belonged to a specific person is a question that apparently became one of the subjects of the appeal.

Still, on 9 December 2024 the Pechersky District Court ruled in Holovach’s favor, finding Averyanov’s statements and Bochkala’s comment to be false and to have violated his honor and dignity.

The defendants’ representatives filed appeals against that decision – as recorded in the case materials, the appellate proceeding was opened in October 2025, and the case was assigned to the panel of the Kyiv Court of Appeal consisting of reporting judge Andriy Stryzheus, Olga Shkorina, and Lyudmyla Polyvach.

What did the appeal decide?

On 16 September 2026 the key hearing in the case took place, at which the appellate court considered the appeals on the merits. The court heard the defendants’ appeals.

The defendants argued that the trial court committed significant violations of procedural law, that the interview does not contain factual assertions about the plaintiff, and that it fully complies with journalistic ethics.

In addition, the defendants pointed out that Holovach, as a former high-ranking official, is a public figure, and therefore the permissible limits of criticism toward him are broader than for an ordinary citizen – a principle consistently applied by the European Court of Human Rights in freedom of expression cases.

Plaintiff’s representative Maksym Kolosar objected to granting the appeals, insisting that, in his view, the trial court’s decision is lawful, well-founded, and should not be overturned.

After hearing the parties and examining the case materials, the panel of judges, after deliberation, ruled: to grant the appeals of Averyanov and Bochkala, to cancel the decision of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv dated 9 December 2024, and to issue a new decision – to deny Andriy Holovach’s claim.

What’s next?

The appellate court’s decision takes legal effect immediately after it is announced, but it can be appealed to the cassation level within 30 days. Whether Andriy Holovach will use this right and whether the case will reach the Supreme Court is currently unknown.

At the same time, this is only the first of three suits Holovach has brought against media figures – two more similar cases are reportedly being heard in the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv. So it is still too early to put a final period on this legal confrontation.