Kyiv Prosecutor Anatoliy Melnyk has denied claims that the opening of a criminal case against the LB.ua online newspaper regarding the invasion of privacy of Regions Party MP Volodymyr Landik could be politically motivated.
“All these rumors have no grounds, especially political ones,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
He said that the opening of the criminal case “can in no way be described as interference in the work of the media.”
Melnyk said that investigative actions with LB.ua officials had not yet been conducted.
“The site will continue to work,” the prosecutor said.
He described this case as “an ordinary criminal case” and said that the prosecutor’s office had first conducted checks upon a statement received from Landik on June 21. On the morning of July 5, the prosecutor’s office received a request from Landik asking that it stop the checks and recanting his claims.
“After dinner on the same day, we got another request from him asking to continue the checks,” Melnyk said, adding that the request was addressed to the prosecutor of the Pechersk district and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
In order to clarify the deputy’s final position on this issue, he was invited to the prosecutor’s office to explain, and he was informed on July 13 that it was a criminal offense to deliberately provide false testimony.
In his explanations, Landik said he wanted the checks to be continued.
“I think there’s no doubt the prosecutor’s office was obliged to conduct such checks,” he said.
