About 100 human rights activists and drivers protested in Kyiv on March 30 over an attack on a Ukrainian journalist who covers traffic police corruption, accusing the police of covering up the case and demanding a clean-up of their ranks.
Journalist Rostislav Shaposhnikov, who founded and reports for the "Road Control" newspaper, was kidnapped, driven to the woods outside Kyiv and severely beaten on March 24, the paper said in a statement. He is now in hospital.
"Road Control" said it believed the attack was linked to Shaposhnikov’s work on bribe-taking and other illegal practices among traffic police.
On Friday, activists gathered outside the Interior Ministry building, holding up pictures of the bloodied journalist.
Police spokesman Volodymyr Polishchyuk said that police were investigating the attack and although they currently consider it a robbery, they could reclassify the case to take into account a possible link to Shaposhnikov’s reporting.
Police in Ukraine have come under increased public criticism in the last few months. Hundreds of people took to the streets earlier this month after police released two of three men suspected of raping, half-strangling and then setting on fire a young woman who has since died.
Bribe-taking is widespread among Ukraine’s traffic police. Motorists caught jumping a red light will usually get away without charge by paying 100 hryvnias ($13), while someone caught drunk at the wheel might have to pay hundreds of dollars.
