Ihor Huzhva, Strana.ua Editor-in-chief, has fled to Viena and asked the Austrian authorities for political asylum.
“We want to inform you that Ihor Huzhva went to Vienna and asked for political asylum from the authorities of the Republic of Austria in line with the accepted procedure. It is worth emphasizing that Ihor Huzhva left for Austria after the period of the preventive punishment determined by the court had expired and he received the legal right to leave Ukraine,” reads the appeal of the editorial board of the Strana.ua Internet newspaper to Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko published on its website on Jan.31.
As reported, on June 24, Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court chose a preventive measure for Huzhva and placed him in custody for two months with an option of a bail in the amount of Hr 544,000.
On June 26, Huzhva’s lawyer, ex-Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olena Lukash said that Huzhva was bailed.
On June 29, the Kyiv’s prosecutor’s office filed an appeal against the preventive measure in the form of a bail, demanding to increase the amount of the bail to the journalist from Hr 544,000 to Hr 3.2 million.
On July 14, the Kyiv’s Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky district court regarding the size of the bail for Huzhva.
Huzhva was arrested in Kyiv on Thursday, June 22, 2017. According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, Huzhva demanded $10,000 in exchange for not publishing compromising material on a politician. According to the PGO, photographic and video evidence backs up charges of impropriety. Dmytro Linko, a Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Radical Party faction, confirmed on Friday morning that Huzhva had demanded money from him.
The same day, the Kyiv city prosecutor’s office reported that Huzhva and his mediator had been detained on suspicion of large-scale extortion under Article 189, part 3, of the Criminal court of Ukraine.
