Treason case opened against former parliament MP Shepelev
A criminal case pursuant to Part 1, Article 111 (state treason) of Ukraine's Criminal Code has been opened against former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Shepelev, Deputy Prosecutor General and Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios has said on his Facebook page.
"In addition to organizing heinous crimes (including murder), the former deputy from Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna (Fatherland) Party went to Russia to serve the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation. He sold his conscience and sold out his homeland," Matios wrote on Wednesday on his Facebook page.
Matios backed up the claim by showing the scanned copy of a hand-written document signed by Shepelev addressed to FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov. In it Shepelev states his "willingness to serve the FSB."
"We have more of these Shepelev types in the nation's legislature. I have no doubt of this," Matios said, adding that the case is based on evidence gathered by military prosecutors documenting Shepelev's wrongdoing.
Shepelev was arrested in March 2015 by Russian law-enforcement agencies. During the summer of 2014 he fled (to Russia) with his bodyguard from a Kyiv hospital. The former deputy was put on the international wanted list by Ukraine's law-enforcement agencies, which suspect him of embezzling funds from Rodovid Bank and commissioning several assassinations.
On March 21, 2015, a Russian court ruled on Shepelev's extradition to Ukraine, but Shepelev nevertheless remained in Russia. On August 8, the former head of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine Serhiy Starenkiy said Shepelev had been released from a Russian pre-trial confinement facility. He criticized the General Prosecutor's Office and Ukraine's Justice Ministry of doing nothing to facilitate Shepelev's extradition.