Kyiv court freezes assets of former Ukrainian president Poroshenko
The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv froze all assets of the former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has been accused of “treason” and “promoting terrorism”. The corresponding decision was announced during a court hearing on Thursday, January 6. "The prosecutor's request to seize the property should be satisfied," the court said in its ruling, as quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Announcing the decision during the meeting, the judge listed all the property and assets of the fifth president of Ukraine, which are to be seized. These are, in particular, apartments owned by Poroshenko in Vinnitsa and Kyiv, an estate in Kozyn, land lots, as well as shares of several private companies.
Poroshenko's defense has already announced that it will appeal against the court's decision, as well as appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Lawyer Ihor Golovan called the case against Poroshenko a political persecution.
On January 6, Poroshenko announced that he was going to return to Kyiv on January 17 to appear in court, as well as to hold a meeting with the Prosecutor General.
The ex-president left Ukraine on December 17 after the police tried to serve him with a summons for questioning in the case of coal supplies from the Donbas. The Poroshenko-led European Solidarity party claimed that the politician "left for a pre-planned diplomatic tour to Turkey and Poland."
The Ukrainian authorities opened a case against Poroshenko under criminal code articles on "financing terrorism", "high treason" and "creation of a terrorist organization" during the period from the end of 2014 to the beginning of 2015. According to the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Irina Venediktova, the amount spent by Ukrainian state-owned enterprises to buy coal exceeds 200 million hryvnia (about $7.27 million). The Ukrainian National Bureau of Investigation gives the amount of 1.5 billion hryvnia ($55 million).