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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The former mayor of Irpin, Volodymyr Karpluk, lost a case against Irina Fedoryiv, the head of the public initiative Holka, and reimbursed her more than 3 thousand UAH in court costs. This is reported by Irina Fedoryiv’s lawyer, Yuriy Melnik, as cited by Glavkom.
Karpluk spent more than two years suing over Irina Fedoryiv’s column in Glavkom about the appropriation of the Bilychansk forest. The politician did not like that the publication stated that he and his team from the New Faces party were behind the forest plunder. The Court of Appeal recognized the author’s remarks as permissible criticism of a public figure, and the Supreme Court refused to open cassation proceedings for the politician.
In an interview with Glavkom, Irina Fedoryiv noted that the funds received from Karpluk would traditionally be spent on helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to the head of Holka, journalists and activists who uncover corruption schemes quite often suffer from similar lawsuits.
“Such lawsuits even have a name – SLAPP suits. They are filed so that media or activists spend years using their resources not on anti-corruption investigations, but on fighting in court. These cases can drag on for years. It is indisputable, wonderful that there are organizations like Bihus.Info or Zmina that support activists and journalists in such situations. But their resources are also limited and cannot cover all cases in Ukraine. Therefore it is extremely valuable that the head of the Committee on Freedom of Speech, Yaroslav Ye-ruchyshyn, registered a bill (№16117) that allows judges to halt consideration of such cases if it is clear that the suit was filed solely as a tool of pressure. In line with Ukraine’s international obligations, parliament members must pass this bill by the end of this year. We will monitor the vote by name in the session hall,” stated the Holka head.
As a reminder, Oleksandr Horobets, a deputy from Servant of the People, also sued Irina Fedoryiv over the publication about the Bilychansk forest. He demanded one hryvnia in compensation from the author and from Ukrainska Pravda, but also sought to recover almost 80 thousand UAH in expenses for a lawyer and an expert examination. In the end, Horobets alone was required to pay nearly 10 thousand UAH in court fees to Irina Fedoryiv. The Holka head donated these funds to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Ексмер Ірпеня Карплюк програв суд активістці і виплатив їй компенсацію". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ZmiOne.
