Mayor of Podilsk loses a dispute with journalists about his bipartisanship

The Supreme Court of Ukraine has dismissed a complaint filed by Oleh Albanskyi, the mayor of Podil in Odesa Oblast, who demanded that journalists refute information about his party affiliation and compensate him for the damage that the publication of this information allegedly caused to his reputation.

According to the Supreme Court' s ruling, the mayor appealed to this last instance after losing in the Primorskyi Court of Odesa and later in the Odesa Court of Appeal.

The fact is that when Oleh Albanskyi ran for mayor in 2020, he was a representative of the Servant of the People party, and the Dumskaya newspaper indicated that he was running from the president's party, while remaining a member of the European Solidarity party.

Oleh Albanskyi tried to prove in court that in fact, back in 2018, he had filed a statement of withdrawal from the Podil city organization of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Solidarity party (the previous name of the European Solidarity), and was not a member of the European Solidarity party at all.

Thus, he demanded that the information about his involvement in Petro Poroshenko's party be recognized as false and that the Dumska newspaper be forced to refute the information it had published and that the My Odesa TV channel do the same.

In addition, the mayor demanded to recover:

• From the Odesa Territorial Organization of the European Solidarity political party in his favor moral damages in the amount of UAH 100,000.
• From the Limited Liability Company TV and Radio Company "My Odesa" and the website "Dumska.net" in his favor, UAH 840 from each of them, as the court fee paid by him for filing a lawsuit.
• The Odesa territorial organization of the political party "European Solidarity" paid him the court fee for filing a lawsuit in the amount of UAH 3,522.

The court of first instance dismissed the mayor 's complaint because the Odesa territorial organization of the European Solidarity political party had not received any information about the termination of Oleh Albankyi's membership in the party, including no documents on his resignation from the party, such as applications, etc. In addition, the head or statutory body of the Podil city organization of the European Solidarity political party is not authorized to accept applications for withdrawal from the party. The court considered that Oleh Albanskyi had applied for withdrawal from the party to the head of the Podil city organization of Petro Poroshenko's party, not to the party's governing body or the party leader, and therefore was not expelled from the party.

The Court of Appeal upheld the court decision of the first instance court as having been made in compliance with substantive and procedural law, considered it lawful and reasonable, and saw no grounds for its reversal.

Кирило Бойко