Yanukovych treason inquiry extended until end of March
Lawyers for Ukrainian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych said they were ready to ensure former members of the ex-president's security service are questioned as soon as possible in order for the treason case against Yanukovych to be concluded.
"Because these individuals are also defense witnesses, yesterday we filed a counter-petition to the Prosecutor General stating our readiness to ensure their questioning within the shortest possible period of time," lawyer Vitaliy Serdiuk told Interfax-Ukraine.
The prosecutor general's office cannot complete the inquiry without questioning former members of his security service, the lawyer said.
In view of this the inquiry period was extended until the end of March 2017, Serdiuk said.
Earlier the Pechersky district court in Kyiv accepted the military prosecution investigator's request to allow a special (in absentia) preliminary-investigation procedure in the high treason case against Yanukovych.
The Prosecutor General's Office stated its intention to hand Yanukovych's lawyers an updated treason suspicion on January 27.
Yanukovych has faced criminal charges of high treason, aiding deliberate efforts to change Ukraine's territorial borders and national border in breach of the country's constitution, and facilitating an aggressive war since November 28, 2016.