Prosecutor's Office opens an investigation into Schemes journalist Heorhii Shabaiev

The Sloviansk District Prosecutor's Office has initiated a criminal proceeding against Schemes journalist Heorhii Shabaiev for allegedly interfering with the work of the judiciary.

Heorhii Shabaiev announced this on his Facebook page.

The reason for this is that Shabaiev informed the Office of the Prosecutor General and the High Council of Justice that Judge Arestova has a Russian passport.

Liudmyla Arestova accuses the journalist of allegedly attempting to discredit her as a judge, as well as of allegedly cooperating with Russia and Russian special services and illegally surveilling her.

"A Ukrainian judge with a Russian passport, who has spent a total of 255 days in Crimea over the past 5 years, accuses me, a citizen of Ukraine who was last in Crimea 11 years ago, of working for the Russian FSB, not her," Shabaiev commented.

It will be recalled that the journalists found out that between 2018 and January 2022, Liudmyla Arestova visited the temporarily occupied Crimea and spent 255 days there. The last time Arestova returned from Crimea was in January 2022.

It was possible to obtain an individual tax number linked to Arestova's Russian passport through the website of the Russian Tax Service.

The judge is also mentioned in the database of the Russian medical laboratory Hemotest.