Police closed the case of threats that Tetiana Popova received because of publication of data about her on the Myrotvorets website

The police closed criminal proceedings regarding the threats against former Deputy Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine Tetiana Popova and against her family members, which was initiated after the Myrotvorets website had published information on journalists in 2016.

As reported by Tetiana Popova herself in a commentary to the Hromadske adding the document stating that the proceeding was closed “for lack of a criminal offense”.

“I gave the police five examples of threats to kill me and my family members”, – Popova explained.

According to her, the fact that the threats of murder concerned her and her relatives, forced her to turn to the police.

“We will consult with lawyers and ask additional questions about what is happening. While it strange that police asks us to provide information about threats and obstruction (in the case on the Myrotvorets lists – ed)”, – she said.

Popova also noted that she keeps receiving threats.

At the same time, as reported by journalist of Hromadske Anastasia Stanko in the Facebook comments, police has not even opened a case on her appeal about the received threats after the publication of data on Myrotvorets website.

“I came with a claim to the Pechersky District Police Department, they took my testimony, I brought printouts of threats, they gave me a counterfoil and told me to wait until they enter the data into the register, then I’ve called them and asked about the number of my proceeding, but they told me that they had not registered yet and then they told that the case was not initiated due to the lack a criminal offense. And that’s it”, – Stanko wrote.

As a reminder, on August 3, Popova have made a decision to resign from her post of Deputy Minister of Information Policy of Ukraine in protest against the attacks on journalists.

On May 7, Myrotvorets Ukrainian website had published personal data of nearly 4,000 journalists, who had got alleged “accreditation in Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR)”. Myrotvorets accused all the journalists of treason and collaboration with separatists.

Apart from Ukrainian journalists, the personal data of CNN, AFP, Reuters, BBC, New York Times, Vice News and Al Jazeera journalists were made public.

The European Union called on the Ukrainian authorities to remove the personal data of accredited journalists from Myrotvorets website.

Tetiana Popova, along with journalists who started to receive threats, actively sought the closure of the site. She published scans of received threats on her Facebook page.

On May 16, website Myrotvorets had announced its closure. However, it resumed its activities on May 19.

A few days later, the site has published personal data of journalists, who had been officially accredited to work in the territory of the Russian Federation, including of four Ukrainian journalists.