The arrests of Tkach and Bondarenko complied with the principle of proportionality, – Austrian minister

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner believes that the arrest of Ukrainska Pravda journalists Mykhailo Tkach and Yaroslav Bondarenko complied with the principle of proportionality. This is reported by the Austrian publication Heute.

"Arrests are never simple. But I assume, and have no reason to doubt, that in this case too the police intervened in accordance with the principle of proportionality and carried out the arrests," Karner said.

According to him, the Vienna prosecutor’s office is continuing its investigation into four people. In addition to Tkach and Bondarenko, they include two other Ukrainian citizens who were arrested at the beginning of last week. They are suspected of conducting secret intelligence activities to the detriment of Austria, Heute reports.

For his part, former SAPO prosecutor Stanislav Bronevitskyi commented ironically on Ukrainska Pravda’s reaction to the Austrian side’s response.

"The time has come to announce a reform of the Vienna police and prosecutor’s office and introduce a competition for the positions of police chief and, accordingly, prosecutor. It must necessarily include a predominant vote by international representatives. Austrian reforms cannot be stopped," he emphasized.

As was reported earlier, under Austrian law, the unlawful persistent pursuit of a person is punishable if, over an extended period, someone systematically seeks physical proximity to them or otherwise contacts them in a manner capable of significantly disrupting their normal way of life. The penalty is up to one year in prison.