Call-up notice as revenge: Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office launches case over obstruction of Slidstvo.info journalists' activity

STANISLAV POHORILOV — Monday, 8 April 2024, 15:00

Officers of a military enlistment office and their "supervisor". Photo: Screenshot from video by Slidstvo.info

The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) has reported opening a criminal investigation into an incident involving military enlistment office employees who tried to serve a draft notice on a journalist of Slidstvo.info, a Ukrainian investigative journalism outlet. This followed the outlet's investigation into the family wealth of Illia Vitiuk, Head of the Cybersecurity Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

Source: PGO press service

Quote: "In connection with the incident that took place during the serving of the call-up notice on the journalist of Slidstvo.info, the Office of the Prosecutor General added information to the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations regarding possible abuse of office and obstruction of professional activities of journalists by the SSU and a military enlistment office, under the tentative legal classification of Article 364.1, Article 171.3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine."

Details: The pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings is reportedly entrusted to the Main Investigation Department of the State Bureau of Investigation.

Background:

Slidstvo.Info investigative journalists found that the wife of Illia Vitiuk purchased the apartment worth over UAH 20 million (around US$516,000) at market price, even though Vitiuk stated in his tax declaration that the apartment cost UAH 12.8 million (roughly US$328,000).
On 6 April, it was reported that after this, staff from a military enlistment office approached Yevhen Shulhat, an investigative journalist from Slidstvo.Info, and attempted to serve him with a call-up notice. The enlistment officers were allegedly accompanied by Oleksii Bilenko, who is close to Illia Vitiuk and works in the SSU cybersecurity department.
Jointly with the General Staff, the SSU and the Ministry of Defence are looking into information published by Slidstvo.Info regarding the attempts to serve a call-up notice to one of their journalists after he published an investigation into a Security Service official.

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