Austria explains detention of Ukrayinska Pravda journalists by eyewitness testimony

The Vienna Prosecutor’s Office has revealed the grounds for detaining Ukrayinska Pravda journalists Mykhailo Tkach and Yaroslav Bondarenko: the reason was testimony from local residents who had seen three men surveilling a certain facility.

The office’s official statement says that an investigation is underway against two Ukrainian nationals on suspicion of espionage. As it progressed, suspicion extended to a third individual — from the context, this refers to Tkach.

“In the course of the investigation, suspicions intensified with regard to one more person. This suspicion was based, in particular, on available eyewitness testimony indicating that three men had been observed conducting surveillance of a facility, as well as on the fact that their surveillance activities took place during the same period and were carried out in the same manner. The findings of the investigation gave reason to believe that the three Ukrainian nationals were acting as a criminal group. The Vienna Prosecutor’s Office therefore, having obtained court authorization, ordered the detention of the third individual as well,” the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office statement reads.

Bondarenko, according to the prosecutor’s office, was in a vehicle at the time of his detention and was not known to investigators at that point. Since there was reasonable suspicion that he was also a member of the group, police detained him on their own initiative.

During questioning, investigators were able to “confirm the fact of surveillance” on the part of the journalists, but were unable to confirm a connection to the suspects already in custody. Following this, a decision was made to release both detainees.

The prosecutor’s office stressed specifically that “the detentions were in no way connected to the professional activities” of the journalists, and insists that the arrest decisions “were justified given the factual circumstances known at the time.”

Earlier, Mykhailo Tkach spoke about his forcible detention in Vienna and the accusation of spying on behalf of Ukrainian military intelligence. The Ukrayinska Pravda journalists themselves stated that they had been in Vienna searching for former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. According to the widely circulated version of events, the two men detained earlier by Austrian authorities are Ukrainian intelligence officers who were also searching for Kravchenko.