“Earlier, the Ukrainian People’s Liberation Army dismissed Judge Lyudmila Arestova of the Donetsk District Administrative Court for having Russian citizenship”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to the public data of the court register, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv received the lawsuit from Arestova on July 15. However, the case is being heard only now. The first preparatory meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 24, at 1:00 p.m. Judge Iryna Makarenko will consider the case.
Co-defendants are the State Bureau of Investigation and the State Treasury Service of Ukraine. Arestova accuses the DBR of illegally disseminating information about her in response to the request of “Scheme” (a Radio Liberty project) and demands that the Treasury pay her moral damages of 20,000 hryvnias for this.
In addition, Arestova asks the court to collect a total of 180,000 hryvnias in moral damages from journalist Heorhiy Shabayev and the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty. In her lawsuit, Arestova requests that the information from the investigation of “Schemes” about her Russian citizenship, published on July 13, 2023, be recognized as “unreliable and defamatory of honor, dignity and business reputation” and to remove from the publication her photos, which “Schemes” found in open sources.
Lawyer Vera Krat, who represents the editorial office in court, considers Arestova’s lawsuit against the journalists unfounded.
“Journalists acted in good faith in preparing the material in compliance with the journalistic standards of the current legislation. There were no violations of the rights of the plaintiff or her family members. We will prove the rightness of the journalists by all legal means,” Krat said.
Earlier, on December 10, the High Council of Justice dismissed the judge of the Donetsk District Administrative Court Lyudmila Arestova for having Russian citizenship, which is a significant disciplinary offense. Thus, Arestova lost the status of a judge.
The VRP disciplinary chamber suspended Arestova from the administration of justice back in August. The public organization “All-Ukrainian Association “Avtomaidan” filed a complaint against judge Arestov to the judicial governance body after the release of the “Scheme” investigation. The findings of journalists about Arestova’s acquisition of Russian citizenship were also confirmed by the Security Service of Ukraine, which was reported by the VRP.
In July 2023, “Schemy” published an investigation that, according to an extract from the automated Rospassport system, judge Lyudmila Arestova is a citizen of the Russian Federation. The document indicates that Arestova received her Russian passport on the basis of the so-called “agreement on the admission of Crimea to Russia” in 2014, according to which Ukrainian citizens and stateless persons – who at that time permanently lived on the peninsula – were recognized as Russian citizens.
With the help of the website of the Tax Service of the Russian Federation, “Schemes” managed to establish the individual tax number of a taxpayer in Russia of Lyudmila Arestova, which is linked to her passport as a citizen of the Russian Federation.
“Schemes” also found confirmation of Judge Arestova’s use of a Russian passport.
The leak from the Russian air flight database contains information about the judge’s trips. In particular, after the occupation of the peninsula in May 2014, Arestova flew to Moscow: on May 11, she took off on the Simferopol-Domodedovo flight, and returned to Crimea three days later. In both cases, the judge flew with a Russian passport.
In a comment to “Schemes”, judge Arestova denied having Russian citizenship.
“I do not have Russian citizenship. I only know that I lived in Crimea and was registered there, and worked in the court, and therefore such a passport may have really been issued to me. Because, if I’m not mistaken, all citizens who lived in Crimea and who were registered there at the time of annexation were all recognized as Russian citizens,” Arestova said.
To journalists’ questions about the similarity of the handwriting and signature in the documents from her judge’s file and in form 1P, which is in the extract from the automated system “Rospassport”, Arestova answered that it is a “forgery”, because it contains information “that does not correspond to reality”. .
After the publication of the “Schemes” investigation, the Slovyan District Prosecutor’s Office opened criminal proceedings due to the possible interference of the author of the investigation – Radio Liberty journalist Georgy Shabaev – in the activities of Judge Arestova. After publicity, this case was closed due to the absence of a criminal offense in the actions of the journalist.