Journalists from A Bola stolen by police in Ukraine!
The reporting team of A Bola was the victim of extortion by the Ukrainian police in Lviv, when they traveled in the early hours of last Thursday, after the match between Portugal and Denmark, to the hotel.
The reporting team of A Bola had finished the work in Lviv Arena, host to the Denmark-Portugal, shortly after 01:00 and went to the city center for dinner. At the end of the meal, around three in the morning, they went back to the hotel, but the traffic in the area was closed earlier so they were forced to do a detour that would lead them to be stoped by the police.
Once the police detected that the cap on the right wheel of the rental car was broken, the news team was forced to do an alcohol test, which in Ukraine is simply blowing in to the face of the agent. He took two steps back and began to say vodka, vodka, suggesting drunkenness. Only speaking Ukrainian, despite knowing some English words (which were very useful), the agent began pointing to the arm. I was being informed that they would be taking blood tests from me.
They began to talk about "money, money." They asked for 500 euros, but the team from A Bola only had 160. For over one hour, we were drived around by the city, pressed to raise money from an ATM. Coercion only ended when it became difficult for the police to dissimulate. But they took the money we had ...
