Bank accounts of anti-graft investigating journalists Denys Bihus and Lesya Ivanova were blocked following a court ruling in favor of Serhiy Semochko, a former Ukraine’s high-ranking intelligence official who had been exposed by the journalists as concealing Russian citizenship of his family members and running corrupt schemes in the pharmaceutical market.
The former official was waging a legal battle with the journalists ever since they published in 2018 their investigation on Semochko, who served as the first deputy chief of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service.
The journalists found out that the official’s wife and adopted children had acquired Russian passports issued in occupied Crimea. Besides, Semochko was exposed as possessing at least three major mansions outside Kyiv to the total value of at least $8 million, which did not correspond to the official’s legally declared incomes.
Semochko strongly denied all accusations, despite the fact that Ukraine’s SBU special service later confirmed his wife’s Russian citizenship. He was sacked following the revelations.
According to Bihus.Info, the journalistic project run by Bihus and Ivanova, Holosiiv District Court Judge Yuriy Mazur ruled in favor of Semochko, demanding that journalists publicly debunk their claims after just one hearing.
“All evidence regarding Russian citizenship and properties of Semochko’s stepson, stepdaughter, and son-in-law, were not debunked by the court but simply not accepted as evidence,” the journalists said. “Because Semochko asserted that he admits people as relatives only in the legal sense according to the family code, therefore he only acknowledges his wife and his son as his family members and does not acknowledge others.
“In other words, assertions regarding their citizenship and possessions were not refuted, but the court declined the evidence because Semochko does not recognize them as relatives. Upon that, it appears that the court declined the evidence on the wife as well, despite the fact that Semochko acknowledges her as a family member, and all evidence regarding her possessions is fully confirmed by Ukrainian and Russian official databases.”
The court ruled as far back as Sept. 10, but it did not issue the verdict’s full transcript until Oct. 16, according to the journalists.
After that, Ivanova appealed the decision.
“But it turned out that by that moment Judge Mazur has already issued an order for compulsory enforcement of the judgment — to refute accusations and reimburse Semochko’s trial expenses,” the project said.
“In other words, the judge decided not to wait for the appeal and even not for the defendant to get acquainted with the decision, which is a brutal violation of the defendant’s rights. In compliance with a letter from the court, a private executor, also without waiting for an appeal trial, blocked the bank accounts of Channel 24 (on which the investigation was broadcast), of the program’s host Denys Bihus, and of journalist Lesya Ivanova.”
Editor’s Note: This report is part of the Investigative Hub project, within which the Kyiv Post team monitors investigative reports in the Ukrainian media and brings them to the English-speaking audience. The project is supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.
