Chornovol refuses to be discharged from hospital [updated]

Below is my translation of an announcement posted on the official Ukrainian Ministry of Health website today:

"The medical condition of  journalist Tatiana Chornovol, who suffered from the result of a beating on December 25, 2013, is stable and satisfactory. This conclusion was reached by a concilium of physicians held on 6 January 2014. The concilium confirmed that the treatment of the patient in hospital has been completed and she no longer needs to stay in hospital. 

According to doctors, Tatiana Chornovol can be discharged and can return home; further medical supervision can be provided on an outpatient basis by specialist professionals. 

However, the patient has categorically refused to be discharged. [my highlight]

As previously reported, the patient - Tatiana Chornovol - born in 1969, underwent a course of medical treatment at the "Borys" private medical clinic for thirteen days. She received comprehensive treatment in full in accordance to protocols agreed by the clinic's experts and consultants from other health care facilities.

Press Service of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine"

This all strikes me as very peculiar, to say the least. Is it an attempt to talk down the gravity of Chornovol's injuries before a worldwide audience of observers?

And what business is it of the the Ministry of Health to comment on treatment being provided by a high-class private health care establishment?

If Ms Chornovol does not wish to be discharged surely this is matter between her and the clinic...no business of the Ministry.

And most importantly, Ms Chornovol's apprehension of being discharged is most understandable. She survived what was most likely an attempt on her life, and was horribly beaten about the head, resulting in multiple fractures and serious concussion. She still suffers pain and dizziness...and probably from some degree of post traumatic stress disorder..

The attempt on her life could well have been commissioned by highly-placed government officials whose corrupt criminal excesses Chornovol frequently exposed. They may even be linked to ministry of health officials. One of her alleged assailants is still at large.

She has every reason to be fearful another attempt could by made on her life. In the last weeks hardly a day goes by without another report of serious beatings of opposition activists, torching of vehicles, serious police harassment, unauthorised detainment etc. etc.

In light of this the Ministry's statement is totally out of order...almost as bad as the assault on her initially being categorised by law enforcement officials as 'hooliganism'..

Evil mind's could interpret it thus: "They tracked her, beat her up within an inch of her life...now the're saying she's ok...fixed...good as new...just one of those things...let's forget about it all..no reason for all the fuss."

p.s. According to one of their presenters Tetyana Chornovol may be interviewed on hromadske.tv tomorrow.

update: 'UkrainskaPravda' run this story today. Some of the commentators explain the ministry of health statement thus:

If Chornovol is hospitalised for over 21 days her assailants would face imprisonment up to 10 years for 'grevious bodily harm'. A lesser duration in hospital would mean her assailants would be charged with causing bodily hard of much lesser gravity, and would only face a 2 year stretch..less time off for good behaviour etc. etc..Get the idea..

Solving Chornovol assault has become a game of poker... and links between perp and politicos

This from United States Mission to the OSCE, delivered today by Ambassador Daniel B. Baer, in his "Statement on Events in Ukraine", 


"....The United States, like many other countries, was deeply dismayed to learn of the violent beating of Ukrainian activist and journalist Tatiana Chornovol in the early morning of December 25. A few hours earlier, Chornovol, who has reported critically on alleged government misuse of state resources, had posted on her blog photos of a residence alleged to belong to a member of the Yanukovich government. The photographs of Chornovol’s bloodied and battered face after she was left in a ditch by her assailants are a haunting reminder of the work still before us to prevent future abuses in the OSCE space.

"Chornovol’s beating appears to be part of an emerging pattern of retribution against those who have organized, participated in, or reported sympathetically on the Euromaidan protests in exercising their fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly. One journalist tweeted poignantly on Christmas Day: “The scary thing [about] an assault on Chornovol [is] that every journalist working in Ukraine now could easily imagine himself in her place, me included.”

Will the case ever be fully solved? Will those who commissioned it ever be brought to justice?
Because of the total mistrust of law enforcement agencies, most Ukrainians have little faith that they will. Nevertheless, it seems that the authorities have at last realised the magnitude of the resonance of this crime.

Even the dashboard camera recordings from Chornovol's vehicle leaked onto YouTube by Chornovol's family and their opposition party aids have been edited - there are several short portions clipped out. This is unfortunate..

These portions may well contain further evidence that could be produced if law enforcement agencies present a falsified version of events in any trial of the accused. E.g. the portions of video held back may contain details of a second vehicle that was allegedly involved. The presence of a second vehicle would make any case of conspiracy far more credible and could provide further clues as to the identity of the commissioners of the crime..

The highway along which Chornovol's vehicle was chased and forced off the road has many video surveillance cameras posted along it. She may have passed a dozen of these. Some reports claim that vehicles can be continuously tracked along this stretch of highway, so investigators will be checking video footage...but what will they produce in court?

Chornovol herself may provide vital evidence. Her husband today stated that she can ID one of her assailants..

There is a game of poker going on, with both sides keeping several cards very close to their chests in order to blacken opponents and minimise political damage.

When Tetyana Chornovol does eventually return to health she will almost certainly continue her work investigating wrongdoing by the president and those in the cabinet...and will expose those evil men who tried to kill her.

p.s. The diabolical links between career criminals and Ukrainian politicians are well illustrated by this entire case.

There are many unofficial reports that the fifth suspect is a  Roman Aleksandrovych Zalyubovsky .

He is about 34 years of age, was born, and lives in Dniprodzerzhinsk.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs' official statements, he works as a security guard. According to another of the suspects, he looked like a boxer..

In 2010, Zalyubovsky  became founder and director of a real estate company called "World-Bud"- in reality he was probably only the 'front man'.

Before him the owner of the company was Oleh Netrebko, who was the founder of the Ukrainian Horting (martial arts) Federation .  Netrebko also owns a chain of other companies related to real estate, and other businesses in the Dnipropetrovsk region, farms etc.

In 2006 Netrebko was a candidate for Natalia Vitrenko's 'Rus' party.

Netrebko was according to some reports, also a criminal authority in the region, a.k.a. "Netrik." and collaborated with another crime boss who featured heavily in my blogs several years ago, the late Maksym [a.k.a. Mad Max] Kurochkin. [Oh, happy days..]

Netrebko was an aid to the former PoR parliamentary deputy Valeriya Matyukha. She had been called as a witness in investigation of the murder of one Roman Yerokhin [who also featured in 'ForeignNotes' a few years ago.]

Organised crime investigator Yerohkin had been delving into money laundering operations in Eastern Ukraine - some of it allegedly linked to current interior minister Zaharchenko.

Matyukha started her career as a secretary in the company of Olena Lukash - who is now the current Minister of Justice of Ukraine....

How bad can it get? This is why YevroMaidan's favourite chant is "Bandu Het!" [Out with the criminal gang] They know what what they want...

[More here]

Husband provides details of attempt on life of Tetyana Chornovol

Although there have been many reports on the dreadful assault on Tetyana Chornovol in English, .e.g. as in 'KyivPost' here and here  they have missed several important details.

Today Chornovol's husband, Mykola Berozovyi, was interviewed on the internet-based 'Hromadske.tv'

He makes the following points, amongst others:

A second automobile, as well as the Porsche Cayenne, was used by the perpetrators in the attempt to force Chornovol's small Chevrolet into oncoming traffic on the busy Boryspil highway, in order to cause a head-on crash. No mention has been made of any second automobile in any official statement by official law enforcement bodies. [The authorities at first claimed it had been a 'road rage' incident..the presence of two vehicles would discount this theory and also would suggest a wider, planned conspiracy].

At least three traffic control video cameras were passed by Chornovol and her assailants as they drove along this highway, maybe many more. No mention has been made of any recordings to date, although one tv station has published a brief surveillance video from a filling station showing both Chornovol's automobile and the Porsche Cayenne which repeatedly rammed it shortly after, driving through.

Berezovyi revealed that Chornovol had been systematically followed in recent times, and at first considered the attending Porsche was just a continuation of this process. She was convinced that she would soon be arrested. She and her husband had used intrigue and set false trails to check and prove that her phone was being bugged. This constant surveillance must have been authorised and logged by senior law enforcement officials, but Berezovyi suggested that this vital evidence will never be revealed, for obvious reasons: no-one is about to incriminate themselves or their superiors.

He explained that the violent assault was certainly an attempt to kill his wife. She had been violently struck about the temples and face, hard enough to cause multiple, serious fractures, but nowhere else about her body. She was severely concussed and is still suffering from partial amnesia as a result. Her lungs contained a large quantity of blood so must have been unconscious when she was dumped by her assailants, and until she was found, providing more evidence she had been left for dead.

The video recorder in Chornovol's Chevrolet had only been installed two days previously - the assailants would not have known of its existence, so they made no attempt to remove it.

Berezovyi points the finger of suspicion at Kyiv 'Berkut' chief, Serhiy Kusyuk. Chornovol and Kusyuk had had several confrontations by the Kyiv city council building when it was stormed by Euromaidan supporters, and when 'Berkut' forces indiscriminately beat up peaceful demonstrators on the Euromaidan on the night of 30th November. Chornovol had punched Kusyuk in the liver in the melee, and this had been seen by many of his subordinates [She had made a monkey out of him, much to Kusyuk's embarrassment]

Berezovyi states the obvious when he asserts that those who commissioned the attempted murder of his wife will do everything possible to 'muddy the waters' and lay false trails in the investigation of this crime. He repeats [as does your blogger] what is often forgotten -  those who govern and control the country right now came to the fore in the murderous early and mid nineties in Donetsk, stepping over the corpses of dozens of prominent businessmen that had come to a grizzly end at that time.

The reason why virtually none of these crimes were ever solved was because law enforcement officials and the judiciary were colluding and provided cover to the perpetrators. Rubbing out the opposition by violent means is part of their modus operandi..

But Berezovyi does not rule out others in commissioning the attempt on his wife's life, and names Viktor Medvedchuk too.

The Porsche Cayenne had also tailed her hours before when she was returning from the house of Viktor Pshonka, the prosecutor-general, a few hours previously..

p.s. A fifth assailant has been detained - he has allegedly 'fessed up'. But unlike the other four suspects, his  name has been withheld...to prevent independent investigators digging up evidence linking him to the commissioners of the crime?

Pshonka and Zakharchenko should step down, not lead Chornovol attempted murder case [updated]

I'm sure readers of this blog were just as appalled as your blogger when they read of the diabolical assault on Tetyana Chornovol.

Her reports featuring the wrongdoings of top Ukrainian politicians, including the president, have featured many times in 'ForeignNotes' over the years

"President Viktor Yanukovych's press service released a statement on Dec. 25, saying that the president condemned this act of violence and ordered Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko to do everything to solve the case of Chornovol's beating."

A few hours before the incident Chornovol had posted a blog on the newly renamed 'YevropeyskaPravda' site entitled:

"The executioner lives here! The residence of "Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaliy Zakharchenko"

In any decent country Zakharchenko, as a possible suspect, would be immediately removed from further participation into the investigation of this dreadful crime, rather than shamelessly bragging about personally supervising the investigation, on this official video.

Because Chornovol was also simultaneously actively investigating the prosecutor-general Pshonka and his property, Pshonka too should have been completely isolated from participation in any law enforcement activities connected with this dreadful business.

If they were decent men, they would voluntarily step aside, if only temporarily, until the perpetrators are dealt with.

But they are not, and neither is the president - the man who has 'ordered' them to solve the case...

Pshonka, in 2001,  was allegedly involved in the murder of another journalist, Igor Aleksandrov, who was clubbed to death with baseball bats. Aleksandrov had been investigating Pshonka's son's links to local organised crime gangs.

Pshonka was a highly placed prosecutor in the Dontesk oblast from 1986 until 2003.  During this period, particularly in the the mid nineties, many dozens killings of top businessmen/crime bosses took place in the oblast. Few if any of these crimes were solved. Those guys who survived and prospered*, the Donetsk clan, now run Ukraine..

Chornovol's small automobile was forced off the road and was impacted many times by a Porsche Cayenne SUV, whilst driving along a busy highway late at night. The Porsche, according to some reports, was escorted by two other vehicles. Her assailants beat her severely causing several fractures, then left her for dead in a ditch. She is currently in intensive care in a serious but stable condition. This was unquestionably an attempted killing...not what the police have cynically and disgracefully labelled 'hooliganism' on their official site. Hooliganism encompasses many minor crimes.... like the painting of graffiti...

The assault was one of a series of what is looking ever more like an organised campaign of violence against many organisers of the Maidan. To date over 50 of them have been beaten; dozens of vehicles have been torched.

Taras Chornovil, [no relation to Chornovol] whose presidential candidate father was murdered over a decade ago,  has suggested that Zakharchenko has set up a band of 'werewolves' or 'eagles' similar to those involved in the killing of journalist Georgiy Gongadze and his father.

Tetyana Chornovol, a very high profile investigative journalist, had been a thorn in the sides of the authorities for many years. She had in the last few weeks figured in criminal cases. Yesterday was the first time she had left the Maidan for several weeks. She was constantly under surveillance and followed and harassed by law enforcement agents. Some degree of involvement by security forces is therefore quite probable...They would have known that last night, unusually, she was travelling home alone. She was found and taken to hospital by DAI road traffic police very quickly after the incident.

BBC, in their profile on Tetyana Chornovol today, include this: "In 2008, she was at the centre of a libel case in which Donetsk tycoon Rinat Akhmetov sued the Obozrevatel website in a London court over "false allegations" in her reports on his early career. The court awarded Mr Akhmetov $100,000 in damages."

I hope the lawyers who represented Akhmetov enjoyed spending their no doubt substantial fee..and choke on their Christmas pudding when they read the story....

Allegations will be made that Chornovol was beaten in an act of provocation to further ramp up anger against Yanukovych, and to revitalise the Maidan movement of which she is an active participant. Against the background of paid troublemakers a.k.a. 'titushky' at pro-government rallies, and the series of attacks against Maidan organisers, these allegations will have little traction..

Party of Regions' spokesman Olena Bondarenko, on the official PoR site, requests those with any information about the Chornovol attack to come forward, but in a mealy-mouthed response declares:

"..today the opposition has shown that it does not control the situation. And proof of this is the incident surrounding civic activist Tatyana Chornovol. Despite the fact that civic leaders take part in mass disturbances, smash windows, it is impermissible to commit violence against them"  in other words its all the fault of the opposition...

p.s. A while ago I ran this:

"By the end of the 90's, an unspoken agreement between the general public and these elites* was formed because the people in power that had grabbed former state property by force,  managed to set up certain rules of the game so ending the gangster lawlessness of the early 90's.

A mutually acceptable amnesia descended on the country, and the dangerous, lawless days of the early and mid-nineties were all but forgotten about by everyone....it became a taboo subject. Society gave the appearance of having forgiven the country's elite in exchange for something that resembled civilised life." 

This amnesia is now lifting..

p.p.s. Say a little prayer for this brave, wonderful young woman tonight...

Update: Investigators are suggesting the brutal assault on Chornovol was a simple case of 'road rage'., the well-to-do perpetrators, who are allegedly members of Ukraine's rotten elite, wanted to teach the victim a lesson for cutting them up on the road.

This simply will not do...

Be sure, Chornovol's many journalist friends will get to the bottom of this...