(RSF/IFEX) – Oleg Eltsov, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper “Ukraina Kryminalna”, was the victim of a shooting attack on 12 January 2004, at about 10:00 p.m. (local time). One or two unidentified assailants fired rubber bullets at him, close to his Kiev home, before fleeing in a car. Eltsov was shot in the leg and […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Oleg Eltsov, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper “Ukraina Kryminalna”, was the victim of a shooting attack on 12 January 2004, at about 10:00 p.m. (local time). One or two unidentified assailants fired rubber bullets at him, close to his Kiev home, before fleeing in a car. Eltsov was shot in the leg and torso in the incident, but escaped without serious injuries. It was the second attack on the journalist in less than six months.
“The number of assaults against journalists continues to rise alarmingly. We urge you to personally ensure that everything is done to find and punish those responsible for these incidents,” said RSF and the Institute of Mass Media, a Ukrainian press freedom organisation, in a letter to Interior Minister Mykola Bilokin.
Eltsov was previously attacked on 24 July 2003 as he left his home (see IFEX alert of 28 July 2003). A police investigation produced no results, but Eltsov believes the attack was linked to information on the Georgiy Gongadze case, which he received from Igor Gontcharov, a former police criminal investigator. The officer was arrested in June 2002 for his suspected role in several murder cases but died in prison on 1 August 2003 in dubious circumstances.
A key witness in the Gongadze case, Gontcharov had accused police and high-ranking Interior Ministry officials of being responsible for the murder of Gongadze, a political journalist and editor-in-chief of the online newspaper http://www.pravda.com.ua , who disappeared in 2000 and was later found dead (see alerts of 18 November, 16 September, 19 August, 8 May and 12 March 2003 and others).
Under Eltsov’s leadership, “Ukraina Kryminalna” frequently posts exposés about corruption scandals implicating top officials and politicians.
