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Yushchenko Orders Probe Into Journalist Attack


President Yushchenko with his family (file photo) 2 October 2005 -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has ordered an investigation into an attack on the car of a journalist allegedly planning a photo expose on the president's teenage son.

Yushchenko today asked Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to assume personal control of the probe into an incident Friday in which the journalist's car was damaged by a homemade fire bomb in the Ukrainian capital.

The press watchdog Reporters Without Borders cites Walid Harfouch, editor of the celebrity tabloid "Paparazzi," as saying he believes the attack was linked to his plans to publish vacation photographs of Yushchenko's son, Andriy, and his girlfriend.

Presidential spokeswoman Irina Gerashchenko denied the link, and said Yushchenko learned about the photographs only after the attack on Harfouch's car.

She said the president considers free speech an "immutable" principle.

(AP)

See also:

"Has Yushchenko's Political Honeymoon Come To An End?"

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