Editor-in-chief of the Strana.ua news portal Ihor Huzhva has been notified of suspicion of extortion, the press secretary of the Kyiv prosecutor’s office Nadia Maksymets reported.
“Editor-in-chief of the Strana.ua Internet publication has been handed a suspicion [of committing a crime] under Part 3 of Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” she wrote on Facebook on Friday evening.
Maksymets added that the prosecutor’s office will apply to court on Saturday, June 24, with a petition to select a preventive measure for Huzhva.
As earlier reported, Huzhva was arrested in Kyiv on Thursday, June 22, 2017. According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Huzhva demanded $10,000 in exchange for not publishing compromising material on a politician. According to the PGO, photographic and video evidence backs up charges of impropriety.
Dmytro Linko, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Radical Party faction, confirmed on Friday morning that Huzhva had demanded money from him.
The same day, the Kyiv city prosecutor’s office reported that Huzhva and his mediator had been detained on suspicion of large-scale extortion.
