Newspaper publisher is arrested in Lviv (01/11/04)

Newspaper publisher is arrested in Lviv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - State Tax Administration officials arrested Markian Ivaschyshyn, co-founder of the oppositionist newspaper Lviv Hazeta, on December 30, 2003, on three charges of failing to declare income.

Mr. Ivaschyshyn's friends and colleagues said the charges were part of a continued, wider effort by state authorities to intimidate and curtail activities of the political opposition as the election year begins.

The newspaper publisher, who was released immediately after being charged, was a leading figure in the student hunger strikes of 1990 in Kyiv. Since then he had been an entrepreneur, an art and music promoter, and a civil protest leader in Lviv. Mr. Ivaschyshyn said the charges were groundless, simply an effort to intimidate him and restrain the anti-government stance of his newspaper.

"They are politically motivated," Mr. Ivaschyshyn told The Weekly. "Authorities want to pressure me into submission by bringing these charges against me."

Lviv Hazeta Editor-in-Chief Yurii Nazaruk was more specific as to why his publisher has come under attack. In quotes in the few Ukrainian mass media outlets that ran the story, Mr. Nazaruk stated that he believed the law enforcement action against Mr. Ivaschyshyn came as a result of articles printed in Lviv Hazeta that negatively portrayed Lviv Oblast Tax Administration director Serhii Medvedchuk and his more famous older brother, Viktor, President Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff.

The charges against Mr. Ivaschyshyn came several months after his partner and financial backer, Lviv businessman Yaroslav Ruschyshyn, owner of one of Ukraine's largest clothing manufacturers, charged that the local tax police were harassing his businesses too.

Mr. Ivaschyshyn said the offices of his newspaper and the entertainment club and art center he also runs, called Dzyga, had received unscheduled visits by tax authorities since June. At that time the authorities accused him of doctoring his books by claiming to take ads for entertainment events at his club that were never held. However, the tax inspectors failed to file formal charges at the time.

Mr. Ivaschyshyn said such charges did not violate the Ukrainian tax code in any case. He said the tax police had specifically questioned him about an entertainment event that was to occur in August 2002, just days after the Sknyliv air show disaster. "After the Sknyliv disaster we pulled the show even though we had advertised it," explained the Lviv Hazeta publisher. "This is one of the bases for the charges."

State Tax Administration officials in Lviv Oblast were not available for comment as The Weekly was going to press. Most government offices remained closed throughout the country as New Year's and Christmas observations continued.

Mr. Ivaschyshyn asserted his absolute innocence and said he would not compromise in the battle he now faces to clear his name of the allegations leveled against him. He said he also would not cave to pressure to curtail his outspoken criticism of both local and state leaders. He explained that when he founded the newspaper in the 1990s as an oppositionist news source, he accepted that he would have to deal with the consequences.

"As we have successfully done before, we will use lawyers and go through the courts to resolve the problems, but we are ready to go the political route as well, with meetings and demonstrations," said Mr. Ivaschyshyn.

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