A special pre-trial investigation will be conducted against the former head of the prosecutor's office of the occupied Crimea, Russian State Duma deputy Natalia Poklonskaya, Kyiv Court of Appeal's press service has reported.

According to the report, the decision by the investigative judge of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv on September 20, 2017 satisfied a respective petition from the senior investigator for particularly important cases of the investigation department of the directorate for representing the interests of citizens or state in court, counteracting criminality and corruption in the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

Thus, permission was given to carry out a special pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings against Poklonskaya under Part 1, Article 255 (the creation of a criminal organization), Part 4, Article 28, Part 1, Article 109 (complicity in actions directed against violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or the seizure of state power), Part 4, Article 28, Part 3, Article 110 (complicity in encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, which resulted in the death of people), Part 1, Article 111 (treason, which foresees deprivation of liberty for a period of 10 to 15 years) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

"On February 28, 2018, a judge of the judicial chamber for the consideration of criminal cases at Kyiv Court of Appeal refused to open appeal proceedings under an appeal filed by the defense team against the decision of the investigative judge of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv of September 20, 2017," reads the statement.