Shufrich to fulfill his parliamentary powers from the pre-trial detention center: court ruling
11 January 2025 17:03
A court has ordered MP from the banned OPFL party, Nestor Shufrych, who is suspected of treason, to be granted the right to exercise his parliamentary powers. A copy of the ruling of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court was published by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Earlier, Shufrych, who is currently in a pre-trial detention center, filed a petition that he wanted to fulfill his parliamentary powers.
Thecourt refused to allow Shufrych to physically participate in the Verkhovna Rada sessions, but ordered him to exercise his parliamentary powers within the limits of his stay in the pre-trial detention center.
The court also sent the ruling to the Verkhovna Rada for consultations.
Honcharenko noted that according to the rules of procedure, an MP can vote on bills only in the session hall. This means that Shufrich will not be able to vote now.
“I wonder how exactly this issue will be resolved… Theoretically, he can participate online, for example, in committee meetings. Or submit bills and resolutions through his assistants,” Honcharenko wrote in a telegram.
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. Subsequently, they organized the transfer and transfer of more than 648.7 thousand Russian rubles to the Russian Federal Guard, which is involved in the war against Ukraine, for the protection of property,” 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.
