Ukraine police arrest two suspects in brutal attack on journalist

Two suspects have been arrested and are undergoing questioning in the brutal assault of civic activist and journalist Tetiana Chornovol, the press-service of the Internal Affairs Ministry reported on Dec. 25. “The motives of the attack are being established,” the press release said. “Measures are also being carried out with the goal of arresting another figure.” Unfortunately, police “weren’t given the opportunity to immediately become familiar with the recording in the video register in the victim’s car,” the release said, quoting Internal Affairs Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko.

Chornovol was chased in her car and afterwards brutally beaten, hours after publishing an article on the Ukrayinska Pravda news site describing Zakharchenko’s suburban Kyiv mansion, including photos that she took. The article was headlined, “The torturer lives here! The mansion of Internal Affairs Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko.” Her beating – in which she suffered a concussion, broken nose, swollen face and several hematomas – renewed EuroMaidan protests in central Kyiv and calls for Zakharchenko’s dismissal.

The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine released a statement on Dec. 25 stating it’s “appalled” by Chornovol’s beating. “We condemn the attack and call for an immediate investigation, which unlike previous such incidents must result in those responsible being held fully accountable under the law,” the statement said. “We express our concern at a strikingly similar series of events over the last few weeks, targeting individuals, property, and political activity, apparently aimed at intimidating or punishing those linked to the EuroMaidan protests.”

Zenon Zawada: Zakharchenko has yet to confirm the owner of the car involved in Chornovol’s beating, information that could have been already publicized. He claimed not to be aware of the license plate number, despite the highway on which Chornovol was pursued being lined with video cameras. Such facts, along with the timing of the incident after Chornovol’s report on his residence, lead the opposition protesters to suspect his direct order to beat or possibly kill Chornovol.

Zakharchenko remains in his post despite the Western condemnation of the police assaults on peaceful protesters and journalists on Nov. 30, Dec. 1 and Dec. 11. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s loyalty to Zakharchenko adds further evidence that he is determined to keep his political team in power at all costs, even amidst plummeting public support and isolation from the West. Such inflexibility, dressed up as “stability,” will only worsen Ukraine’s political crisis in 2014.