5.  The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in Molodetske, in the Donetsk Region.
6.  On 28 January 2007 the applicant, at the material time a member of the Shakhtarsk District Council and president of the local branch of the Party of Regions, read out a letter at a meeting attended by over forty party members and inhabitants of the village of Zolotarevka which contained the following text:
“To the Member of the Shakhtarsk District Council, President of the district branch of the Party of Regions, Mr Lykin V.V., from the inhabitants of the village of Zolotarevka ...
We, the inhabitants of Zolotarevka ... appeal to you with indignation concerning the election and performance of the Deputy President of the Shaktarsk District Executive Committee, Mr G. Sh. [full name given].
...
He is a grabber and a petty tyrant. How can he serve the district after having destroyed all the work in Zolotarevka during his four years in office? He had no formal audiences, took decisions unilaterally, and was rude and impolite. He came to work in the morning, but then hid in his illegal firms in Makeyevka or in the computer centre in Kharsyzk, while continuing to receive his salary and bonuses. Funds were allocated for renovation of the water supply system, but he did not manage them ... All the village ... was drowning in weeds and rubbish ... No discussion about petty things, we want to know specifically why [G.Sh.] should get away with the following:
(1).  [he] collected 30 hryvnias per household [for renovation of the water supply system] on Sh. and P. streets, and what did he spent it on?
(2).  [he] removed all the metal parts from the boiler room in the kindergarten ... ;
(3).  [he] uncovered and removed 400 metres of water pipes;
(4).  with his knowledge, the century-old oak trees in the forest have been felled.
We request your support ... All who voted for the [Party of] Regions, that is 95% [of the voters] are disgusted, and demand [G.Sh.]’s resignation from the district council. He should be expelled from the Party of Regions.”
7.  This text was followed by eleven signatures, with no indication of full names.
8.  After having read out the letter, the applicant expressed his personal dissatisfaction with G.Sh.’s performance as a party activist and an elected public official, and was joined in this by several other participants. Mrs A. stated that she was one of the authors of the letter, and that she agreed with all the allegations contained in it.
9.  G.Sh. was given the floor and argued that the allegations against him were defamatory and lacked any evidential basis.
10.  In February 2007 G.Sh. instituted civil proceedings in the Shakhtarsk Court, seeking non-pecuniary damages from the applicant for having disseminated defamatory information about him. He maintained in particular that the applicant had had no right to read out the letter, which had contained unverified defamatory information accusing him of criminal and corrupt conduct. As the purported authors of the letter had signed it without indicating their full names or address details, it should have been disposed of without any follow-up as an anonymous application within the meaning of the Citizens’ Applications Act. G.Sh. also submitted that the applicant had given him a photocopy of the disputed letter before the Zolotarevka meeting, and had warned him about his intention to read it out. G.Sh. had protested on the grounds that the text was defamatory, yet the applicant had disregarded his opinion.
11.  On 17 September 2007 the Shaktarsk Court declared that the applicant had been at fault in defaming G.Sh., and awarded the latter 200 Ukrainian hryvnias (UAH) in respect of non-pecuniary damage. In particular, the court found that the letter should have been treated as an anonymous application by citizens within the meaning of section 5 of the Citizens’ Applications Act. Instead of not pursuing the allegations in the letter, the applicant had acted unlawfully in making it public without verifying the serious accusations against G.Sh. which it contained.
12.  The applicant, represented by Mr V. Filipenko, appealed. He argued that the Citizens’ Applications Act was not applicable to the facts of the case. In particular, reading out and discussing the content of a letter from voters at a political party gathering could not be deemed an official follow‑up in respect of an anonymous application by citizens within the meaning of the above instrument. Moreover, the letter was not “anonymous”, given that Mrs A. at least had claimed authorship. As regards the nature of the letter, it contained no false allegations of fact. In particular, G.Sh. himself had confirmed that UAH 30 per household had been collected for the renovation of the water supply conduit, and that the boiler-room equipment in the kindergarten had been dismantled upon his orders. There was also evidence in support of other factual allegations. Critical assessment of those facts by some village inhabitants was not susceptible of proof and constituted reasonable value judgments on their part, for which the applicant could not be held responsible. In addition, G.Sh. should have been tolerant of the criticism, as it related to his performance as an elected public official.
13.  On 3 December 2007 the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the Shaktarsk Court. It found that the court had rightly concluded that the letter had been anonymous, as it was not possible to identify the authors from the signatures contained therein, and that it had been addressed to the applicant as a public official rather than a private individual, hence the Citizens’ Applications Act had been properly applied. Furthermore, the trial court had rightly concluded that the applicant had not verified the accuracy of the accusations contained in the letter as required by Article 302 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, and had therefore been liable for disseminating defamatory statements against G.Sh.
14.  On 30 January 2008 the Supreme Court of Ukraine rejected the applicant’s request for leave to appeal in cassation.