Court orders Kommersant newspaper to retract claims that Deputy Transport Minister Urbanksyi has links with Faina ship’s owner

The press service of the Transport and Communications Ministry announced this in a statement.

On
May 20, the court upheld a lawsuit in which Urbanksyi accused
Kommersant Ukraine of damaging his honor, integrity, and business
reputation by alleging that Urbanksyi factually owned and controlled
the Faina vessel.

The
allegations were made in the article entitled “Greek Cargo Ship Faina
May be Ukrainian” that was published in the Kommersant Ukraine
newspaper on October 15, 2008.

The
court ordered Kommersant Ukraine to publish a retraction in its next
edition in the same column in which the article was published.

As
Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Security Service of Ukraine denied
in late December 2008 that Urbanksyi had links to the company that owns
the Faina vessel.

Pirates
seized the Faina vessel near the coast of Somalia on September 25,
2008, with 33 T-72 battle tanks, six Hrad rocket launchers, and 17
Ukrainian citizens on board.

The crew of the Faina was released in early February 2009.