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Alert

Journalist receives death threats

(IMI/IFEX) - The following is a statement from IMI, an interim member of IFEX:

Businessman threatens journalist with a gun to the neck

Vlad Issaev, a journalist with the newspaper "Rivne Vetchirne", has received death threats as a result of an investigative report that he is conducting. For several years, Issaev has been investigating the activity of businessman Anatoly Pekhotin, formerly a Ukrainian citizen and now the holder of an American passport.

On 23 February 2007, the journalist was taking photos of an incident involving Pekhotin. The businessman saw the camera aimed at him, rushed toward the journalist, put a gun to his neck and started to utter death threats. Pekhotin injured the parking lot attendant where the incident took place.

"He came running towards me, put the gun against me and told me that if I continued to write about him, he would shoot me," Issaev said. He added that the businessman had previously threatened him without ever acting on it. Police later arrived on the scene and took Pekhotin into custody. The businessman continued to yell threats. The police released him later the same day.

Issaev filed a complaint with the police and the public prosecutor, demanding that the offender's "hooliganism" be punished. To date, he has not received a response from the police.