An unpleasant incident occurred on November 22 in Fastiv. Local militia officers pushed a journalist of the newspaper "Lutskyi Zamok" Sviatoslav Lesiuk out of a train, handcuffed him, threw him into a special holding facility and beat him. The publication's employee that evening was returning from a business trip from Kyiv, where he had visited the Maidan. This was reported by the own correspondent of the Western Information Corporation.
\n \nOn November 24, the news editor of the newspaper of the Lutsk City Council "Lutskyi Zamok," Sviatoslav Lesiuk, returned to Lutsk with bruises on his body and marks from handcuffs, and immediately turned to colleagues for help.
\n \nHe said that on November 22 he was on a business trip in Kyiv, where an international conference initiated by the Institute of Mass Information, "Transformation of Ukrainian Media: From Post-Soviet Society to Europe," was taking place. After the conference he visited the Maidan, where he took several photos from the celebration of the first anniversary of the Orange Revolution.
\n \nSince the journalist had bought the return ticket back in Lutsk, at 20:37 he boarded the "Kyiv-Kovel" train. In the compartment he argued with a woman who did not share his views on the Maidan. The woman complained to the conductor that she did not wish to travel in the same compartment with him and asked to call the militia.
\n \nLater, according to the Lutsk journalist, the conflict subsided, he calmly sat down to drink coffee that he had ordered from the conductor. However, at the "Fastiv" station, a squad of militia officers burst into his compartment, who, without explaining anything, twisted his arms, pushed him out of the train together with his belongings, put handcuffs on him and delivered him to a special holding facility, where he spent the whole night and had to spend the night in handcuffs.
\n \nThe militia officers were not stopped even by the fact that the detainee introduced himself as a journalist performing his official duties. Moreover, Sviatoslav Lesiuk claims: when the militia officers learned that he was one of the "orange" supporters, they knocked him to the floor and began to beat him with their hands and feet. On this matter he has already applied to a forensic medical examination to document the beatings.
\n \nIn the morning, the victim claims, they already treated him very cordially, tried to settle the situation and asked him to sign a protocol stating that he had no claims against the militia officers. The journalist refused to sign any documents, since he discovered that from the belongings returned to him, a wallet containing about 260 hryvnias had disappeared.
\n \nIn the administrative court he was charged with violating public order, allegedly committed while in a state of alcoholic intoxication, although he had not consumed alcohol either on the Maidan or on the train. At the same time, according to him, the militia officers did not even try to call a doctor who could have refuted or confirmed what was written in the protocol.
\n \nSince in court there turned out to be no real evidence of his guilt, and the written explanations of witnesses, according to Sviatoslav Lesiuk, were "fake," the judge did not dare to fine him, but adopted a ruling by which he issued a warning.
\n \nThe journalist of "Lutskyi Zamok" stated that he would file a complaint with the court against such actions of the militia officers, and would also demand that the Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Lutsenko conduct an official investigation into this fact. He appeals to fellow journalists for support, since, according to him, "anyone could have found himself in my place."