Ukrainian outlets publish banned corruption investigation into official's brother

Eight Ukrainian news outlets defied a court ban on Friday and published a corruption investigation into the brother of a senior law enforcement official.

The investigation by Slidstvo.Info and the Anti-Corruption Action Center, known as AntAC, claimed to have uncovered 143 properties linked to the brother of Oleksiy Sukhachov, director of Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation.

A court had banned publication of the material. According to a ruling published by AntAC, a Kyiv judge said publication would cause irreparable harm to Sukhachov.

Suspilne, one of the outlets that published the report, said it viewed the ban as censorship and believed the findings should be made public. AntAC head Daria Kaleniuk said the ruling set a dangerous precedent and claimed AntAC and Slidstvo.Info were being used to test a mechanism for stopping journalists from exposing corruption.

Ukraine has spent years trying to fight corruption, which the source described as one of the country's major problems. The issue is also part of Ukraine's effort to seek European Union membership during the Russian invasion.

Activists have reported pressure from authorities on their work. President Volodymyr Zelensky last year reversed an attempt to strip independent anti-corruption agencies of their powers.