11:55 13.02.2018

Strana.ua chief editor Huzhva placed on wanted list

2 min read
Strana.ua chief editor Huzhva placed on wanted list

Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv has decided to place the editor-in-chief of the Strana.ua media outlet, Ihor Huzhva, on the wanted list, Ukraine's Channel 5 has reported.

Such a decision was filed by the prosecutor's office.

"The general wanted list is provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code. A person who evades the investigation is put on the wanted list. When his location is established, he will be detained," the prosecutor said.

At the same time, lawyers said that their client was being treated abroad and would return to Ukraine on February 20.

"I think that it is premature [to place him on the wanted list]. The court was provided with all certificates that he is undergoing treatment now, that's why this decision is premature," Huzhva's lawyer, Olena Klymenko, said.

Huzhva was arrested in Kyiv on June 22, 2017. According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Huzhva demanded $10,000 in exchange for not publishing compromising materials against an incumbent politician.

On June 23, Dmytro Linko, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Radical Party faction, confirmed that Huzhva had demanded money from him.

Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office reported that Huzhva and his mediator had been detained on suspicion of large-scale extortion under Part 3, Article 189 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Huzhva was arrested for two months with an option to post UAH 544,000 bail. The bail was later posted, and he left the pre-trial detention center. The editorial board was searched several times.

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