Former judge of Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv Mykola Chaus said in court when considering a petition to apply a measure of restraint for him that he was kidnapped for the purpose of murder, because he fled from his captors.

The Court Rulings' Unified Register contains the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) ruling dated August 4 on the disqualification of a judge when considering a petition to apply a measure of restraint for Chaus.

"The suspect [...] said he is a victim in a criminal proceeding for a criminal offense, namely kidnapping for the purpose of murder. He said the murder was not carried out, since he escaped, walked 50 kilometers on foot and voluntarily appeared in the agencies of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)," the court said in its ruling.

According to the document, the suspect said he was arrested on August 3, and before that he "had been provided with measures of protection due to the existence of a threat of murder."

"He considers the NABU officers violated the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine by not filing a petition for his detention with the High Anti-Corruption Court, but instead filed a petition for the application of a preventive measure," the court said.

The court said in the ruling that in this way the suspect believes the NABU officers "violated the procedure for applying to the High Anti-Corruption Court with a petition for the application of a preventive measure, the investigating judge should have refused to open proceedings on this petition."

It also follows from the text of the HACC ruling on the refusal to challenge a judge that the defense's arguments about the missed deadlines for considering a petition for the application of a preventive measure have not been confirmed. "Thus, in the materials of the petition there is a protocol of the suspect's detention dated August 3, 2021, indicating the time 21:05. The statement of the lawyers about the detention on July 30, 2021 is refuted by the statement of the acting head of the SBU Main Investigation Department [...] which indicates the presence of [Chaus] in the hospital and the implementation of security measures in relation to him as a participant in criminal proceedings," the court said in the document.