On Monday, January 17, former President Petro Poroshenko returned to Ukraine. Already today he is awaiting trial on the case of treason and aiding the terrorists "LDNR".
While passing through passport control, Poroshenko was served with a summons.
The GBR held a briefing on the case in which Poroshenko is a defendant.
It should be noted that the plane in which Petro Poroshenko returned to Ukraine landed at Zhulyany.
At the passport control, according to Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Euro Solidarność parliament, Poroshenko was approached by the GBR officers and his passport was taken away. After some time, the passport was returned, and at the moment Poroshenko left the airport and speaks at a rally.
We shall remind, on December 20, Petro Poroshenko was announced a suspicion of treason and terrorism financing in the case of coal smuggling from the ORDLO.
According to the investigation, using his presidential powers, Poroshenko gave instructions to disrupt coal supplies to Ukraine from South Africa. Then, at the request of Russian representatives, he organized the signing of contracts for the supply of coal from the occupied territories of Donbas.
Under such a scheme in 2014-2015 pro-Russian militants "LDNR" were financed by more than 200 million hryvnia.
The investigation is conducted under Part 1 and Part 3 of Article 258-5 (financing of terrorism), Part 1 of Article 111 (high treason) and Part 1 of Article 258-3 (creation of a terrorist organization) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. These articles envision punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 15 years.
Opposition MP Viktor Medvedchuk, former Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn and businessman Serhiy Kuzyara are suspects in the "coal" case together with Poroshenko.
The former president could not be personally suspected because he had left the country the day before. Later, Poroshenko said that he planned to return to Kiev on 17 January and meet the prosecutor-general.
On January 6, the Pecherskyy court seized all of Petro Poroshenko's property in the treason case.
The arrest was imposed on the property, which belongs to the fifth president according to the information from the registers. In particular, this includes real estate, corporate rights, etc.
The politician's lawyer Ihor Golovan described this decision as illegal because the Pecherskyy court did not have the right to consider the request of the GBR investigators, as it is outside the territorial jurisdiction.
Poroshenko might be arrested with a bail of 1bn hryvnyas
According to Petro Poroshenko's defence, at the end of December, the Pecherskyy district court of Kiev ruled to detain the former president in order to bring him to a court hearing on the selection of a preventive measure.
In addition, the Office of the Prosecutor General prepared a petition for a measure of restraint in the form of detention with an alternative to bail of 1 billion hryvnias. The lawyer Ihor Golovan stated that there is such a decision, but it is "hidden".
Trial to be held on January 17
The Kiev Pecherskyi District Court has scheduled a meeting for the election of a preventive measure in the form of detention for the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. The hearing will begin at 11:00 on January 17.
Earlier, Poroshenko's defence demanded that the hearing be scheduled for 17 January, the day of his return to Ukraine. Lawyers Ihor Golovan and Ilya Novikov said that the politician was ready to come to court voluntarily, so there were no grounds for forcing him to come.
We shall remind you that the State Bureau of Investigation expects that Petro Poroshenko, suspected of treason, will appear in court on his own.
The State Bureau of Investigation also said that it might cross-examine the ex-president and MP Viktor Medvedchuk.
