Ukrainian justice has decided on Wednesday of Petro Porochenko’s freedom, accused of high betrayal, while prohibiting him from leaving the country.
Le Monde with AFP
The Ukrainian national anthem for Petro Porochenko and his relatives rested in the courtroom of Kiev Court, Wednesday, January 19, according to journalists from the France-Presse Agency on the spot, to the announcement of The decision of the Ukrainian justice of the freedom of the former president and opponent accused of high treason, while prohibiting him from leaving the country. The decision was announced by Oleksi Sokolov J.
More than a thousand supporters from Mr. Porochenko gathered before the court pending the decision. Clashes with the police briefly broke out, injuring a police officer and a protester, according to the police. The protesters then directed to the presidency before dispersing.
“Dear friends, I congratulate you”
The parquet had claimed the incarceration of the former Ukrainian president, except payment of a deposit of about 30 million euros. The judge nevertheless ordered the main opponent to President Volodymyr Zelensky to make his passports, without whom he will not be able to leave Ukraine. The lawyers of Mr. Porochenko immediately announced that they would appeal this decision.
“Dear friends, I congratulate you,” said the press the former head of state and billionaire, surrounded by his wife and several members of his party. “We came here to show that we are not afraid, that the truth is with us.” He accuses President Zelensky to have held prosecutions against him to get rid of a political rival, “discredit” and “discredit” and “Divide” the country with this case, despite the threat of an imminent Russian invasion.
The prosecution of Mr. Poroshenko are closely followed by Westerners, Ukraine who have been convicted in the past for persecutions considered political former senior state officials. “One of the long-standing goals of Moscow was trying to sow divisions between and within our countries,” warned the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a meeting Wednesday in Kiev with Mr. Zelensky, in an apparent reference to the Poroshenko case. “We can not and will not let them do that,” he continued.
Act of “high treason”
Billionaire 56, Mr. Porochenko returned to Ukraine on Monday after a month abroad, despite the threat of an arrest. Investigators suspect Mr. Porochenko for working with the rich Magnat Prorusse Viktor Medvedchouk, a close to Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to facilitate the purchase in 2014 and in 2015 of coal to companies located in eastern. Ukraine, in the hands of Prorussian separatists who are at war against Kiev.
According to the prosecution, the former president had de facto used state funds to finance the separatists, an act of “high treason”, punishable by a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison. Mr. Porochenko, whose relations were execrable with Russia during his presidency, particularly led the country at the peak of the conflict. Today MP, the former president is cited in several dozen judicial affairs.