Kyiv, December 20, 2011 – A Kyiv court held a hearing yesterday in the libel case of Philipp Kirkorov against the Ukrainian daily newspaper Segodnya and segodnya.ua website. The interests of the singer are represented by lawyers from Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev and Partners.

In July 2011, the above mentioned publications published a number of false facts about the visit of Mr. Kirkorov to Yalta, as well as information about a brawl involving the singer’s security guards. According to the singer and his lawyers this publication has caused damage to his professional reputation.

On behalf of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev and Partners the interests of Mr. Kirkorov in the Ukrainian court are represented by partner Alexey Reznikov and senior associate Arseny Milutin.

Alexey Reznikov said: "The second hearing was held yesterday. The previous hearing ended when the judge demanded to bring the journalists, who prepared and published these materials, into the proceedings as co-respondents. "

"This time the journalists were not present at the hearings, passing the request to consider the case in their absence. The defendant's attorney asked to bring to the case materials that allegedly proved the reliability of distributed information. In addition, at yesterday's hearing, the judge read out the request of Mr. Kirkorov for the both editions to publish refutation of the false information. We believe that the both publications did not put enough effort to verify the authenticity and validity of the material that eventually caused damage to the reputation of our client, "- commented Mr. Reznikov.

The next hearing is scheduled for February 2, 2012, in order for the plaintiff's representatives will get familiar with the materials provided by the defendant during the last court hearing.