Eight Ukrainian media outlets published the text that a court had temporarily banned from publication. Investigative reporters thanked them for their courage.
Oleksii Sukhachov is known in Ukraine as the controversial director of the State Bureau of Investigation. He became head of the institution, established ten years ago as Ukraine’s equivalent of the US FBI, despite criticism from anti-corruption activists.
Until recently, far less attention had been paid to his older brother Oleksandr, a businessman from Kharkiv, who, according to available information, previously worked in the security department of Ukrainian Railways.
But he is the central figure in an investigation that journalists from the Slidstvo.info website and the Anti-Corruption Action Centre spent months working on.
Shortly before they were due to publish it, a Kyiv court temporarily banned them from doing so. The editorial teams subsequently described the move as a “dangerous precedent” and an attack on freedom of expression.
