Arestovych justified the SSU's trail to the journalists

Ex-adviser of the President's Office, Oleksii Arestovych, does not consider the trail of the Security Service employees after Bihus.Info journalists to be wrong or bad, as, in his opinion, this is one of the duties of the special service.

He said this in an interview with journalist Vasyl Holovanov, NikVesti writes.

«I don't see anything terrible in the fact that the SSU is watching someone. Because the SSU exists for the purpose of monitoring everyone,» Oleksii Arestovych said.

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The journalist clarified: the SSU should monitor everyone or only those who pose a threat to national security.

«So if you don't follow, you won't find out whether they pose a threat to national security. First you have to follow. That's why I don't lose consciousness when they shout «persecution of journalists,» answered Oleksii Arestovych.

He also stated that journalists of Bihus.Info made commissioned critical materials about him.

«Bihus personally persecuted me three times. And the first critical material that appeared to me was created by Denis Bigus and was called «Liar, Troll and Virgin». Since then, as far as I know, he has taken a personal order for me twice. Despite the fact that he is a «black square», and «black squares», as you know, do not betray each other under any circumstances («Black Square», theater studio in Kyiv, — note). Bigus and his assistant Alice are happy exceptions. I treat them very badly personally, because I know who they are. I know what the investigation market is like in Ukraine, how dark and cynical stories are, where everything is sold and bought. And when they stand in a noble pose and shout «We are journalists!», I don't believe in principle and don't even want to pay attention,» he said.

At the same time, Oleksii Arestovych notes that it is necessary to figure out whether the employees of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood of the Security Service of Ukraine (DZND) should at all be engaged in such cases as tracking down journalists.

— Does it (DZND, — note) distribute efforts correctly? It seems to me that people who for 30 years «issued tickets» to innocent university rectors and others who happened to be in the field of journalism, with the advent of the war, were forced to perform real tasks, they simply did not cope with the task, he said.

Oleksiy Arestovych noted that the important question is who gave them the task of monitoring Bihus.Info and whether it was really a matter of national security. He added that you can't simply «abandon» 30 officers to do something like this during the war.

«Head of SSU Maliuk says that it was their own act. At least that's what he says. That these comrades shamed the SSU, which is heroically fighting (with the enemy, note), exposed 47 Russian intelligence networks. He even says that they went to the front (involved in the trail, note). This topic is scandalous from all sides: scandalous investigative journalists, scandalous part of the Security Service of Ukraine, which was watching them. And the very fact of the trail does not frighten me at all. Because this is a normal activity of the special service. It must control the operational situation in the country and be able to influence it. If they don't follow anyone, they are like a surgeon without X-rays: it seems necessary to cut, but where — it's unknown,» he said.

What happened?

The head of the Bihus.Info project, Denys Bihus, said that unknown people had been listening in and watching the publishing team for several months in a row.

He made such a statement while commenting on a video in which employees of the publication used drugs at a corporate party in a country house. The video also included a recording of the journalists' phone conversations, during which they agreed to bring these substances. Now the editorial staff is waiting for personnel purges.

Later, the journalists asked for help in identifying the persons who are probably involved in following the team of investigators.

And on the evening of February 5, the project team published an investigation, in which it proves that in the ethno-complex «Ukrainian village» they were watched by the employees of the Security Service of Ukraine.

After that, the Security Service of Ukraine stated that some employees of the Bihus.Info project were clients of drug dealers and helped supply drugs to other people.

It also became known on February 6 that the State Bureau of Investigation will investigate the case of illegal surveillance of journalists of the Bihus.Info project. It is noted that criminal proceedings have already been opened, in accordance with Part 1 of Article 359 of the Criminal Procedure Code — illegal installation and use of special technical means of covertly obtaining information in the premises of a suburban complex in the territory of Kyiv region.

The employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, who were monitoring Bihus.info journalists, were transferred to perform combat missions in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Detention of the editor of NikVesti

It will be recalled that in 2016, on the evening of August 24, on Independence Day, the head of the DZND Department of the SSU in the Mykolaiv Region invited Oleh Dereniuha, the editor-in-chief of NikVesti to the administration building «for the exchange of information» under a contrived pretext. As a result, it ended with a four-hour interrogation and seizure of the journalist's mobile phone in violation of criminal procedural legislation.

The only explanation officially given by the security forces after the arrest is that a call was allegedly made using this phone with a false message about the demining of Soborna Square in Mykolaiv.

Oleh Dereniuha himself connected the questioning and seizure of the phone with his professional activities.

Later, NikVesti managed to remove the arrest of the phone in court, and the SSU admitted that the journalist had not tampered with anything.

Read about the details of the case here.