Nestor Shufrich’s arrest extended: MP has been in jail for 14 months
14 November 2024 23:24
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has extended the preventive measure for MP Nestor Shufrych, who is accused of treason, until December 5. This is reported by Suspilne, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs
Shufrych’s lawyers requested a change in the measure of restraint and stated that the suspicion against the MP was not justified.
“He has been in jail for 14 months without a guilty verdict. He was more useful in the parliament. He has a number of diseases, just like his father. There are grounds to reconsider the decision, any measure of restraint, to fulfill their decisions,” the lawyer said.
Also today, Shevchenkivskyi court considered a preventive measure for Shufrych’s former aide, Viacheslav Cherepanya.
He asked the court for round-the-clock house arrest.
“I want to establish my innocence and return the property you took away,” Cherepani said.
The prosecutor objected: “The suspicion is justified, the risks have not decreased. Therefore, the preventive measure of detention should be extended.”
What is known about the case of Nestor Shufrych
Nestor Shufrych is accused of high treason and transferring funds to pay for the work of a security firm in the occupied Crimea in 2016.
“In 2016, in order to protect property on the temporarily occupied peninsula, the defendants organized the conclusion of a security contract with the illegal paramilitary formation of the occupation authorities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea – FSUE “Okhrana” of the Russian Guard for the Republic of Crimea. Later, they organized the transfer of more than 648.7 thousand Russian rubles for the protection of property to the Russian Federal Guard, which is involved in the war against Ukraine,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said recently.
On Tuesday, September 3, prosecutors sent to court an indictment against Shufrych, a member of the Ukrainian parliament of the IX convocation from the banned OPFL political party. The MP’s aide will also be tried.
The defendants are in custody.
Shufrich himself has been in custody for almost a year. He does not admit his guilt. He considers the case to be politically motivated.
Nestor Shufrich
Nestor Shufrych is an MP from the OPFL party, which was banned in 2022. He is the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech. Formerly: Member of Parliament of many convocations, Minister of Emergencies of Ukraine (2006-2007, 2010), Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (2010-2012). He is an associate of Viktor Medvedchuk.
During his political career, he voiced a pro-Russian position and was a member of pro-Russian political parties: SDPU(o), the Party of Regions, and OPFL.
In 2013, he signed an appeal to the Polish Sejm from the Party of Regions and the Communist Party calling for “recognizing the Volyn tragedy as genocide against the Polish population and condemning the criminal acts of Ukrainian nationalists.”
He was involved in many fights in parliament and on television.
In 2017, he was accused by the Prosecutor General of tax evasion of UAH 40 million.
In 2019, he was accused of participating in an illegal safari in Africa, during which he allegedly killed endangered animals.
Since 2014, he has called the war in eastern Ukraine a “war between Ukrainians.”
At the beginning of the full-scale war, he was detained at a checkpoint in Kyiv when he tried to take a photo of it.
In 2019, he declared cash totaling UAH 137.48 million, including USD 2.45 million and EUR 2.3 million.
