Police detained on Aug. 26 three young men, suspected of beating journalist Roman Varshanidze in Odesa Oblast.
Varshanidze, who is expected to survive the attack, is the chief editor of Naddnistrianska Pravda web newspaper in Ovidiopol, a town in Odesa Oblast some 500 kilometers south of Kyiv.
Varshanidze was attacked late on Aug. 25 when he was driving home.
In a video posted on his newspaper’s website, he said that he had seen wooden boards with nails lying across the road. After the journalist got out of his car to remove them, two masked men armed with the iron bats attacked him.
“They started hitting me in my head and in my back,” he said, adding that he tried to fight back.
Varshanidze said he was saved by his neighbor who had stopped his car by the attackers and made them run away.
The journalist added that before leaving, one of the attackers accidentally dropped the keys from his car, which had his name and car number indicated on them. This evidence led police to find the attackers quickly.
Varshanidze said they allegedly were the members of one kickboxing sports club in Chornomorsk, a city in Odesa Oblast.
Dmytro Holovin, the Odesa Oblast police chief, said in a report, posted on the Odesa Oblast police’s Facebook page, that all three men were residents of Chornomorsk city (former Illichivsk city) of Odesa Oblast.
Varshanidze said that two of them attacked him when the third one was following his car and reporting about his whereabouts to the other attackers.
The police also showed videos of interrogations of the two suspects, where one of them admitted they were commissioned to beat the journalist and another one said he was watching the fight.
Holovin said the police opened a criminal probe on threatening and violent actions against a journalist. This crime leads to up to five years in prison.
Now the police are trying to identify the contractors of the attack, Holovin said.
Varshanidze believes the attack was a result of his investigations, including the finding of the illegal dump site, reports about illegal construction, misuse of land and embezzlement of the public funds.
“I definitely know that many don’t like what we do, I’m sure that many want to shut our mouths up,” he said.
