From the DW:
“Ukraine: Ex-President Petro
Poroshenko returns to face treason charges”
Former President Petro Poroshenko
was placed under investigation for high treason and left Ukraine in December.
He is expected to head straight to a court in Kyiv. Petro Poroshenko arrived in
Ukraine on Monday to face the charges against him, which he says are
politically motivated. Ukraine's former President Petro Poroshenko returned to
Kyiv on Monday to stand trial for treason in his country. After flying out of
Warsaw Chopin Airport in Poland, he had a brief standoff with border patrol
officers but later left the airport. Ukrainian investigators said the border
officers tried to serve a subpoena to the former president, but he refused to
take the documents. Poroshenko is expected to head straight to court, where a
judge will decide whether he should be taken into custody pending the
investigation. As the former leader emerged outside the airport, he was greeted
by thousands of his supporters. Some of them were waving the Ukrainian flag,
while other carried posters and banners that read: "We need
democracy," "Stop repressions" and "Hands off
Poroshenko." "We are not here to protect Poroshenko, but to unite and
protect Ukraine," he told the crowd. "Now I'm heading to the court
where we'll give them a fight."
What are the charges against
him? Poroshenko, a confectionery tycoon and one of Ukraine's richest
businessmen, is facing allegations of treason dating from his time in office.
He served as president between 2014 and 2019. Prosecutors allege
that while in office, he was involved in the illegal sale of large amounts of
coal that helped finance Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. His
assets have been frozen as part of its investigation. If convicted, he faces up
to 15 years in prison. Poroshenko insists that he is innocent and that
the charges against him are trumped up by allies of his successor, President
Volodymyr Zelenskiyy in an attempt to discredit him. When asked on the
kind of sentence Poroshenko could face if convicted, DW correspondent Mathias
Bölinger said that although the maximum sentence is 15 years, it is nonetheless
"very hard to know whether a deal is possible and how good the evidence
is. "Right now the court has to decide whether he will remain in custody
or whether he will walk free, on bail for example," Bölinger told DW. Tetiana
Sapyan, a spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), said at a
briefing that Poroshenko had been handed a summons to appear in court on
Monday. Sapyan said that Poroshenko had "refused to receive
procedural documents" and "ignored the legal requirements of the
investigator." "At the same time, the persons who were with
him carried out physical resistance, which was recorded on video
recordings," she added.
Why did he return? Poroshenko
said that he wanted to return to Ukraine to fight the case against him. He also
said he wanted to protect the ex-Soviet country from a possible Russian
invasion. He accused Zelenskiyy of not doing enough to secure the
country's borders and offered to help the government. "We are ready
to help the authorities. We are ready to share our thoughts and advice,"
the ex-president said in a video message prior to his arrival. He added
that his party, the opposition European Solidarity, would support "all
initiatives aimed at strengthening the defense potential of our state and the
European direction of our country. Poroshenko's
presidency came after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula and fighting
escalated between Kyiv troops and Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the
country. His return comes at a time of heightened tension between the
West and Russia, which Kyiv has accused of amassing troops along the border in
preparation for a possible invasion.
^ Ukraine is facing a lot of
difficulties right now: Russian-Occupied Crimea, Russian War in Donbas, the
threat of more Russian Invasions and dealing with Former Presidents. ^
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