It is more difficult for an ordinary Ukrainian to defend his or her honor and dignity than for a public official - a retired judge

It is more difficult for an ordinary Ukrainian to protect his or her honor, dignity and business reputation than for an official, because officials always have more opportunities to defend themselves. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by retired judge of the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Sytnikov.

"Indeed, it is very difficult to protect one's honor and dignity from an official. We simply do not have good specialists - lawyers - who would deal with the protection of people's honor and dignity from officials. In general, we have practice, but it is a very complicated process. Because officials have their own apparatus, they keep track of everything, most of them even have their own staffs dealing with PR or other issues, so it is very difficult to defend oneself," Sytnikov said.

In addition, according to him, the duration of a civil trial for the protection of honor and dignity may be longer than in administrative proceedings.

"An authority always has more power and always has more opportunities to defend itself. We have had such a question in our practice, and when we discussed it, it would be more reasonable to transfer the protection of the honor and dignity of an authority or official to administrative justice in some way, because in administrative justice, the authority must prove that it has not violated the rights. And in civil proceedings, a citizen must fully prove the guilt of the authority. And here, you see, this inequality immediately emerges in the practical application of these rules," the retired judge explained.

Context

Earlier it became known that businessman Viktor Polishchuk filed a lawsuit against ARMA to protect his honor, dignity and business reputation with the Shevchenkivskyi District Court .

In a commentary to UNN, Viktor Polishchuk explained that he was forced to go to court because of the statement by the head of the ARMA, Olena Duma, that he and his wife had "close relations with the Kremlin elite". He stated that this information was fictitious and untrue.

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In early June, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the Prosecutor General's Office's motion and allowed the transfer of the Gulliver complex to the ARMA. However, representatives of Gulliver claim that this decision grossly violates procedural and substantive law and actually means a business takeover with the assistance of law enforcement and security agencies.

It is not yet known how this situation will develop further, as representatives of the company that owns the complex are arguing in court that this decision is groundless and illegal.