Prosecutors cancel police's decision to re-classify attack on Khmelnytskyi journalist as hooliganism

On June 27, 2025, the District Prosecutor's Office of Khmelnytskyi City canceled the April 16, 2025 decision by a Khmelnytskyi police department's senior investigator to formally re-classify the attack on Khmelnytskyi journalist Alyona Bereza from threats or violence against a journalist to hooliganism, Alyna Bereza reports to the Institute of Mass Information.

The journalist recently sent a query to the police and the prosecutor's office, asking about the progress in the investigation into the attack on her, which occurred in November 2021. From the response, she learned on April 16, the case's classification had been changed from Part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Threats or violence against a journalist”) to Part 1 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Hooliganism”) at the investigator's initiative.

Alyona Bereza. Photo by the Khmelnytskyi Oblast Reform Council

According to Alyona Bereza, neither the investigator nor the prosecutor's office, which monitors the status of the pre-trial investigation, notified her of the case being re-classified and passed from the investigative department over to the inquiry.

On June 30, 2025, the journalist received emails from the District Prosecutor's Office of Khmelnytskyi City and the inquiry department of the Khmelnytskyi district police, informing her that the proceedings had been re-classified again on June 27, 2025. The District Prosecutor's Office of Khmelnytskyi City canceled the senior investigator's resolution and reinstated the case as classified under Part 1 of Article 345-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Threats or violence against a journalist”).

“On the same day, the pre-trial investigation in the proceedings was entrusted to the investigators at the Khmelnytskyi district department of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast Police HQ,” the prosecutor's response states.

Previosuly

On November 3, 2021, investigator journalist and regional IMI representative Alyona Bereza was doused with an unknown substance by an attacker in Khmelnytskyi. The journalist believes the attack had to do with her reporting.

The police opened a case under Part 1 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Hooliganism”) following the attack on Bereza. The case was later re-classified under Part 1 of Article 345-1 (“Threats or violence against a journalist”).

On November 4, Alena Bereza was assigned armed security guards.