PGO asking for arrest of Yushchenko's property in case of aiding Yanukovych in possession of Mezhyhirya
Investigator from the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine is asking the court to arrest the property of the third president of the country Viktor Yushchenko, head of the Special Investigations Department under the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Serhiy Horbatiuk has said.
"As part of the investigation of the criminal proceedings on suspicion of Yushchenko's complicity in Yanukovych's possession of Mezhyhirya, the investigator of the Prosecutor General's Office appealed to the court to arrest Yushchenko's property," Horbatiuk told in comments to the Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
The motion for the property seizure has been sent to court, but the date of the hearing has not been determined so far, he said.
Ukrainian parliamentarian Serhiy Leshchenko earlier said that the Prosecutor General's Office had notified Yushchenko of suspicion of misappropriation and embezzlement of property or taking possession of it through abuse of office in the case involving the withdrawal of the Mezhyhirya residence from state property in 2007.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor's General Office confirmed that Yushchenko is suspected of having taken possession of the buildings of the Mezhyhirya residence and a house in the village of Novi Petrivtsi, Kyiv region, as well as plots of land worth a total of UAH 540 million.
A written report on the suspicions against Yushchenko was made and sent on May 24, 2019 during a pretrial investigation opened on December 25, 2015, the prosecutor general's press secretary Larysa Sarhan told Interfax-Ukraine.
Yushchenko has confirmed having been informed of the suspicions, but denied all charges and said the case was politically motivated.