Poroshenko's lawyers expect start-up of investigation of Kuznya on Rybalsky, Pryamiy TV
KYIV. Sept 11 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Lawyers for former President Petro Poroshenko have said 15 new criminal cases involving their client have been opened. They said they expect investigations of PJSC Kuznya on Rybalsky (also referred to as Leninska Kuznia) and Pryamiy television channel to be activated.
"All criminal proceedings involving the most improbable subjects that we have discussed last year, "The Kerch Story," treason, etc., all this will recede into the background, this is one way or another a smokescreen. We expect the President's Office to focus on Kuznya on Rybalsky and Priamy television channel," Poroshenko's lawyer Ilya Novikov said during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
"These two directions will set the trend during the autumn season in criminal law policy. We expect immediate actions to be taken in the near future," he said.
Novikov said Poroshenko's legal team have received information that searches are being prepared for Priamy television channel.
"They will be presented not as persecution of political opponents and persecution of a free press, but solely as an investigation of economic activity," he said.
Poroshenko's lawyer Ihor Holovan announced the opening of 15 more criminal proceedings, in which Poroshenko appears:
"On September 4, no less than 15 new proceedings surfaced, directed against Leader of the European Solidary Party and Ukraine's fifth President Petro Poroshenko. These 15 proceedings are as empty as the dozens that were fabricated up to this time, but the fact that the government has not stopped, the fact that the government continues the direction of political persecution, in our opinion, is remarkable. […] We now we can very clearly see another beneficiary of this activity - the former owners of PrivatBank in relation to issues concerning its nationalization."
Most of these cases, according to Holovan, were opened by Poltava regional department of Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU).
"What is most remarkable is not 15 new cases against Poroshenko have been opened, but the fact that not a single criminal proceeding has been opened against Member of Parliament Andriy Derkach," Novikov said.