Court orders protection for Iryna Farion's daughter due to threats on social media

During a preparatory hearing in the case of the murder of Iryna Farion, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Lviv decided to provide the daughter of linguist Sofia Osoba and her two young children with personal protection for a period of two months due to threats on social media.

A Suspilny correspondent reported this from the courtroom on January 3.

The daughter's lawyer Iryna Farion Natalia Romanyk filed a petition with the court to take security measures against Sofia Osoba and her children due to threats on social networks against them. In particular, under posts about the opening of a street named after Iryna Farion.

“One lady writes: this one also wants a bullet. And, the scariest thing is that this post under the photo of Ms. Sofia has gained more than 5 thousand likes. Imagine what a huge number of unhealthy people there are. This cannot be a healthy reaction”, – says the lawyer.

Therefore, Nataliya Romanyk asked the court to take security measures against Sofia Osoba and her children, Dmytryk and Eva, and to entrust the implementation of this resolution to the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Lviv region.

Previously, law enforcement officers provided security for Iryna Farion's daughter. During the court hearing, prosecutor Dmytro Petlyovany reported that the term of such security measures had already expired.

V’yacheslav Zinchenko's lawyer Ihor Sulima says that Sofia Osoba did not contact law enforcement agencies, and no investigation was conducted to identify those who were threatening her. Therefore, he considers the court's decision to apply security measures to her and her children premature.

“The panel of judges decided to apply security measures to the victim Sofia Osoba and her family members, minors Eva and Dmytro, for a period of two months until March 2, 2025 inclusive. The execution of the decision is entrusted to the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Lviv region. The decision is not subject to appeal”, — the judge read out the decision.

Also during this court hearing, the preventive measure for the suspect in the murder of Iryna Farion, Vyacheslav Zinchenko, was extended in the form of detention for a period of 60 days until March 4, 2025.

Natasha Kumar

By Natasha Kumar

Natasha Kumar has been a reporter on the news desk since 2018. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining The Times Hub, Natasha Kumar worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my natasha@thetimeshub.in 1-800-268-7116