On 10 June 2017, Ruslan Moroz, a journalist with the newspaper «20 Khvylin Zhytomyr», was attacked and robbed. The prosecutor’s office refused to acknowledge that the attack was linked to the journalist’s professional activities despite the fact that the victim had substantiated evidence.
In an open letter, «Solidarity Network» demanded a fair court decision in the case of the innocently injured journalist.
«Ukraine is obliged to respect freedom of speech and human rights, to respect and accept criticism of experienced journalists, and not to try to intimidate them with violence, imprisonment or even death. Ukraine can become a member of the European Community only if the actions of executive authorities and officials are consistent with the postulates of democracy recognized by Europe», the letter reads.
The «Solidarity Network» has instructed lawyer Andrey Gozhiy to defend Ruslan Moroz’s interests on its own behalf.
Journalist Ruslan Moroz (Kunavin) was brutally beaten in a robbery attack in the summer of 2017. The public and the victim himself insist that the attack on him was related to his journalistic work and his coverage of corruption scandals in the region. After numerous threats, Ruslan Moroz (Kunavin) was attacked by a group of people in collusion: they beat him half to death and took away his journalistic equipment. In spite of such a blatant act, the attackers are still at large and the case is qualified under the common criminal article – robbery. The authorities are trying by all means to conceal the very traces of the attack for journalistic activities. Police, prosecutor’s office and the court promote tactics of delaying the trial in order to “lose” all traces of the crime that lead to the regional authorities. The OSCE mission has been informed about all these offences by the lawyer Andrey Gozhiy.
Advocate Andrey Gozhiy gave his comments on the long-awaited reaction of the world community:
European human rights activists after our appeals have officially recognised Ruslan Moroz-Kunavin as a victim for his journalistic activities. No matter how much the authorities and the regime tried to “hush up” the case and twist the facts, Europe had its say. The «Solidarity Network» from Switzerland was previously involved in the release of Vasylets and Timonin and Muravitsky, who are already at large. The main thing now is to achieve punishment for all those who beat and kill journalists with the regime’s approval.