Press-service of All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda informed that on November 13, officers of Svyatoshyno district Station of Kyiv Region department of MIA of Ukraine have detained a former MP candidate in district #159 Artem Semenikhin
According to the provided information, officers conducted a search in the candidate's house, and than invited him to the station to talk about accusations of fraud, where he was staying for the whole day. It was also mentioned, that the emergency arrived to the station some time later and provided the member of Svoboda party first medical aid. Relatives and a lawyer were not allowed to see him.
Artem Semenikhiv is now detained for 72 hours until preventive measures are determined.
The party believes it is connected to political activities of their representative, which was not only a candidate in district #159 from the opposition, but also actively protected voting results in the district #223 in Kyiv.
It's interesting that the candidate reported to the public about pressure on October 8. After this information has appeared on the OPORA's site, a representative of the Civil network received a call from a women. She introduced herself as Iryna and said that she initiated criminal proceedings against Artem Semenikhin. "It's not my fault that the fraud incident was noticed before the elections, it is a pure coincidence", – she said.
The All-Ukrainian Union Svoboda, for its part, considers similar actions as political persecution and pressure put by the power on the opposition.
The Civil Network “OPORA” - a non-governmental, non-political and financially independent all-Ukrainian network of activists. We united to enhance public participation in the political process by developing and implementing models of citizen participation in the activities of state and local governments.