VAKS considers seizure of Tymoshenko’s property: details
19 January 12:14
The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) has concluded a closed hearing in the case of People’s Deputy and leader of the Batkivshchyna faction Yulia Tymoshenko. On the agenda is the consideration of a motion by the SAPO prosecutor to seize the suspect’s property. The court announced a recess until 1:30 p.m. on January 20.
This was reported bySuspilne from the courtroom, according to Komersant.
At the beginning of the hearing, the central topic was the defense’s doubts about the legality of the court’s composition. Yulia Tymoshenko stated that the NABU, SAPO, and VAKS systems act as a “single mechanism of political repression.”
The suspect’s main argument was the allegation of possible interference in the system of automatic distribution of judges. According to Tymoshenko, the prosecutor allegedly knew the name of the presiding judge even before the system officially distributed the case.
“This means that both the previous and current composition of the court are illegal. And therefore, all decisions made as a result of this are illegal. We are not filing a recusal motion at this time because we are preparing detailed documents for appeal to the PACE Monitoring Committee,” Yulia Tymoshenko said.
The SAPO prosecutor asked the court to hold a closed session, saying it was necessary to protect the secrecy of the investigation and personal data. The judge agreed with this. Tymoshenko’s lawyers, Maksym Soroka and Oleksandr Gotin, were totally against this.
“The defense is against it because we want the whole country to see what is really happening in this trial,” said lawyer Oleksandr Gotin.
The defense argued that publicity is the only safeguard against a “show trial,” and that concealing the proceedings only confirms its fabricated nature.
Earlier, the defense emphasized the publicity of the trial and denied the validity of the charges, calling the case a “political order.” During the hearings, Tymoshenko claimed that the funds seized during the searches were “family savings” and that working documents and telephones were seized without proper grounds.
It should be noted that Yulia Tymoshenko and her team have consistently criticized the work of the newly created anti-corruption agencies, in particular the NABU and the SAP. Tymoshenko voted for the elimination of the independence of the NABU and the SAP and spoke from the podium in support of this decision.
What Yulia Tymoshenko is suspected of
On the evening of January 13, anti-corruption officials raided the Batkivshchyna party office and seized $40,000 from party leader Yulia Tymoshenko. According to investigators, she intended to use the money to bribe three MPs from another faction to vote as she instructed them. Subsequently, the SAPO announced that the politician was suspected of offering a bribe and published a recording of Tymoshenko’s conversation with the MP to whom she offered the bribe.
The former prime minister responded by accusing the NABU and SAP of “political persecution.” According to her, the investigation falsified the recording, and the $40,000 was her personal savings. On January 16, the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a preventive measure on Tymoshenko in the form of bail in the amount of 33.3 million hryvnia. She was also ordered to surrender her passport and not to leave the Kyiv region without the permission of the investigation.
