Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has given permission to conduct a special pre-trial investigation of former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko.

"On July 25, 2017, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court granted the request of investigators from Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) to conduct a pretrial investigation of former Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko," PGO spokeswoman Larysa Sarhan said on her Facebook page on Tuesday.

Sarhan said PGO agents are looking into whether ex President Viktor Yanukovych, Zakharchenko and others held now deceased Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Volodymyr (Sabondan) Drabynko against his will. Yanukovych, Zakharchenko, and former Kyiv police chief Valeriy Koryak are suspects in that crime.