The Bihus.Info team won the lawsuit against the former deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Serhiy Semochko.
Journalists reported this on Facebook.
The trials lasted six years and went through three instances. In the fall of 2024, the Holosiivskyi Court of Kyiv ruled that the journalists should have refuted the investigation for the second time and paid compensation to Serhiy Semochko again. However, the Kyiv Court of Appeal has now overturned the previous decision and ruled to return the money to the editorial office.
Serhiy Semochko worked as the first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service on July 31, 2018, and in April 2029, then-President Petro Poroshenko dismissed him.
In 2018, journalists from the program “Our Money with Denys Bigus” reported that relatives of the Deputy Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Semochko have Russian passports issued in the occupied Crimea, as well as several luxury real estate properties in Kozyn near Kyiv.
After the investigation was made public, SBU opened a criminal case under the article of state treason against Semochko. SBU also confirmed the Russian citizenship of his wife. In August 2021, Semochko was able to be reinstated in court because he was illegally dismissed while on sick leave.
After the investigation, in 2018, Semochko filed a lawsuit against the journalists for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, demanding that they refute “unreliable information”. Two years later, the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv ordered the journalists to do so. The court also recovered money from the journalists for legal costs. At the time, Denys Bigus stated that the court ruled in favor of Semochko, without refuting a single fact from the investigation.
In 2023, at the request of Bihus.Info, SBU confirmed that Semochkoʼs wife and relatives had Russian passports.
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