The Court of Appeal overturned Judge Vovk’s ruling prohibiting Slidstvo.Info from publishing an investigation into the property of the brother of the head of the State Bureau of Investigation.
On September 23, the Kyiv Court of Appeal overturned a ruling by the Pechersk Court prohibiting Sledstvo.Info and the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ACC) from publishing an investigation into the real estate of Alexander Sukhachev, the brother of the head of the State Bureau of Investigation.
This was reported by Sledstvie.Info.
“It’s crucial that this decision was overturned, as it was aimed at restricting freedom of speech. This should stop further attempts to ban journalistic materials, especially high-profile investigations,” noted Oksana Maksimenyuk, a media lawyer and the attorney representing Sledstva.Info in this case.
What came before
On July 6, 2026, the day Slidstvo.Info, together with the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ACAC), was preparing to publish an investigation into 143 properties owned by Oleksandr Sukhachev, the brother of the director of the State Bureau of Investigation, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv prohibited the publication.
Judge Vovk ruled that online publication of Alexey Sukhachev’s brother’s financial status, details of his real estate acquisitions, and sources of financing could cause irreversible damage to the individual, which would be impossible to rectify after the publication. Furthermore, the court found that this violated the commercial secrets of Parkovy-2 LLC. The court’s ruling indicated that the brother of the State Bureau of Investigation’s director had failed to provide permission to disclose information about his 143 properties.
Both Sledstvie.Info and the Central Bank of Ukraine (CBC) saw this decision as pressure on journalists and an attack on freedom of speech.
On July 17, in a show of solidarity, eight Ukrainian media outlets simultaneously published an investigation into 143 properties belonging to the DBI director’s brother, which had been prepared by journalists from Slidstva.Info and the Anti-Corruption Center. These eight were later joined by 19 more media outlets. As a result, the court-banned investigation into the assets of the DBI director’s brother received 4 million views.
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