Pechersky District Court of Kyiv has given permission to conduct a special pretrial investigation into the "Maidan cases" against the former head of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) said.

"With the participation of prosecutors from the PGO of Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, the petition of the investigator of the State Bureau of Investigations for permission to conduct a special pretrial investigation against the former head of the SBU, who is hiding from the investigation and the court," the PGO said in the statement.

According to the PGO, such a court decision gives the prosecution the right to conduct the pretrial investigation against the suspect in his absence.

The PGO said that the permission was granted as part of a criminal investigation on suspicion of the former president of Ukraine, the SBU head and his first deputy, the interior minister and his deputy, the commander of the internal troops of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine and other officials in an organization as part of a criminal group from February 18 to February 20, 2014, illegal obstruction of rallies, abuse of power and official powers, which entailed grave consequences, namely, premeditated killings, attempted premeditated murders, desertions. As it is known, from January 2013 to February 2014, the SBU was headed by Oleksandr Yakymenko, who currently lives in Russia.