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Five men were taken into custody in Ukraine in connection with the attack on the activist and journalist Tatyana Chornovol. One of them, according to Kyiv Post, is Serhiy Kotenko, 29, who is the director and a major shareholder of Keyko Ukraine, the license holder of the TVi television outlet.
Until April 2013, TVi was considered one of the last television outlets in Ukraine that uncovered corruption at the highest level of the political system. Following some dubious transactions, however, Keyko took over the company that held TVi license, and the outlet’s editorial policy changed radically. As a result, over 30 journalists left the outlet, and its programming drifted toward entertainment. After another series of “dizzying” transactions, according to Kyiv Post, by 2 July Serhiy Kotenko ended up as the 40% owner of Teleradiosvit, the TVi license holder and part of Keyko.
In addition to Kotenko, four other suspects were taken into custody in connection with the attack on the night of 24 to 25 December. One of them is Oleksandr Khramtsov, the owner of the sports car that blocked Tatyana Chornovol’s car. However, it seems that he had sold the car to Kotenko six months before, and the Ukrainian mass media published video footage of Khramtsov at a Kyiv restaurant during the time of the attack on Chornovol. Khramtsov is still the car’s registered owner because Kotenko hasn’t paid him in full for the vehicle, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Serhiy Kotenko’s brother was also taken into custody. Oleksandr Kotenko is allegedly a known member of an organized crime group in Ukraine.
According to a declaration of the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior investigation department Mykola Chynchyn, one of the investigators’ priorities is to determine who gave the orders to commit the attack.
Tatyana Chornovol, 34, a known activist and investigative journalist from Ukraine, received a severe beating from unidentified men on the night of 24 to 25 December while returning to her home near the capital.
Chornovol’s car was followed, hit and then blocked by a sports vehicle, out of which several men came out, who pulled Chornovol out of the car, severely beat her, and, leaving her in the car, pushed the car in a ditch at the side of the highway. The journalist was left nearly unconscious and she will need multiple surgeries for face injury.
A day before the attack, on 24 December, Chornovol posted in her blog an article about a luxury property belonging to Ministry of Interior Zacharchenko near Kiev.
According to local and international mass media, the attack on Tatyana Chornovol gave new force to the protests in Ukraine at a time when they were losing steam. For several days, hundreds of people protested in front of the Ministry of Interior, demanding the dismissal of the minister and identification of those who ordered the attack, and not only those who committed it.
Source of photo: www.telegraph.co.uk
