Anti-corruption Action Centre won the appeal against MP Pavlo Pynzenyk in the case of spread of false information about the NGO. Yesterday, on January 30, Kyiv Court of Appeal found the information spread by MP Pynzenyk at his briefing at the Verkhovna Rada to be false, and ordered him to contest it at the similar briefing within a month.
It is worth noting that, on May 23, 2017, Pavlo Pynzenyk, MP of Narodnyi Front, claimed at his briefing that AntAC violates the law regulating the activity of non-profit organizations and announced false figures of the money NGO members allegedly received alongside their salaries. He also showed a film with false data on Anti-corruption Action Centre and threatened to withdraw its non-profit status.
“Since the very beginning it was clear that politician’s threats were nothing but an attempt to intimidate AntAC and to block its activity, – Daria Kaleniuk, CEO of AntAC, says – Nevertheless, these false allegations were later used to start made-up investigations against the NGO and to increase pressure on us.”
It should be mentioned that the appeal filed by MP Pavlo Pynzenyk served grounds for the tax police and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine to open the criminal investigation against AntAC leaders. Now the court determined MP’s allegations, on which the investigation was started, to be false.
“In the court the NGO submitted all the necessary evidence of the data being false, and the court ruled it was enough to order the MP to contest the information, – Oleksii Boiko, AntAC’s lawyer comments on the situation. – That’s why the MP will have to contest figures and statements made by him in the same public way.”
AntAC representatives claim that having learnt about the false nature of the information provided by Pynzenyk, tax police and the prosecutor’s office should close criminal investigation against the NGO, which was lately transferred to Cherkasy Prosecutor’s Office. “If the case, opened on the grounds of false information against AntAC leaders is not closed, then it will be clear demonstration that is “ordered by someone” and politically motivated”, — Kaleniuk adds.
It should be pointed out that in June 2017, AntAC filed an action to Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv aimed at refutation of false information. Although the NGO submitted numerous notes and references proving that the figures were untruthful and clearly overstated, judge Moskalenko turned down the activists. Moreover, she was refusing to issue the text of her decision in time for the NGO not to be able to appeal it.
It is also important to stress that based on this information the defamation campaign against AntAC on alleged tax dodging was made up both in Ukraine and abroad.