The Kyiv authorities are trying to take away a land plot from the city’s Jewish religious community without allowing the media to cover the developments.
The Kyiv authorities are trying to take away a land plot from the city’s Jewish religious community without allowing the media to cover the developments. So says the community's statement in this regard.
Representatives of the Kyiv Jewish community reported to news.liga.net that the Economic Court of Kyiv passed a decision to make the trial secretive.
“For unclear reasons, the court refused to allow the 24 News Channel and UNIAN agency to cover the legal process,” stated the President of the World Forum of Russian-language Jewry and Head of the Kyiv Jewish community, Oleksandr Levin.
Chief Rabbi of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Jewish Religious Communities, Moshe Asman also expressed his surprise in this regard.
According to the rabbi, the community hoped that the coverage of the trial will facilitate passing of a just decision.
“The freedom of the press is a kind of an indicator of democracy in a country. In a state governed by the rule of law a journalist has a right to work in the court session hall. We do not understand the high level of secrecy of this trial which is described by the city authorities as an ordinary economic conflict,” noted Mr. Asman.
According to the representatives of the Jewish community, it plans to build a community center in the disputed land plot. An appropriate contract was signed with the builder two years ago. However, during the last month when the construction began, the city authorities of Kyiv made an attempt to take away the plot “in favour of commercial interests of an unknown customer” by means of legal proceedings. The legal proceedings were instituted a few weeks ago upon an action brought by the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Kyiv in the interests of the Department of Economics and Investments of the Kyiv City State Administration against the builder company cooperating with the community. Office of the Public Prosecutor accused the builder of a failure to pay its share and violation of economic interests of the state. However, according to the Jewish community, the plot has been in its ownership since 2008 and all the taxes and communal bills have been duly paid.