“They took me as a hostage and demanded money”: Kolomoiskyi said that he was not going to post bail

Kolomoiskyi explained why he refuses to pay the bail set by the court / photo UNIAN, Viktor KovalchukToday, September 25, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv refused to change the preventive measure for businessman Ihor Kolomoisky from a bail of 1 billion 877 million 360 thousand hryvnias to house arrest or personal commitment.

According to the correspondent of UNIAN, the corresponding decision was announced by the investigative judge Oleksiy Glyan, who informed that this decision on the refusal to grant the petition to change the preventive measure is not subject to appeal.

During the court session, Kolomoiskyi explained why he refused to pay the bail set by the court in the amount of 1 billion 877 million 360 thousand hryvnias.

“I believe that this is a criminal racket that comes from the very top. And from the very beginning I was told that there would be 3 billion or something, even before I was imprisoned. I was warned by high-ranking SBU employees that there would be billion in collateral,” Kolomoisky stressed.

The businessman noted that the amount of the pledge has changed over the last year from about 3.9 billion to 1.8 billion hryvnias.

“The most important task is for me to sit in prison. Here I am,” said Kolomoiskyi.

He said that refusing to post bail is his principled position.

“Because I believe that this is a racket at the state level with the use of all power structures, including the judiciary,” Kolomoisky emphasized.

He explained what was really happening.

“They took me as a hostage, put me in prison and demanded money,” said the businessman.

In turn, lawyer Vyacheslav Kraglevych reminded that the final term of Kolomoiskyi’s detention was supposed to end on September 2, 2024, but the prosecution submitted a motion to change the preventive measure from detention to bail.

At the same time, Kraglevych noted that Kolomoiskyi will not pay any amount of bail that will be determined by the court.

“We ask to change this preventive measure, which is currently established, from bail, respectively, to house arrest… or to establish a personal obligation accordingly,” Kraglevych appealed to the court.

In turn, the lawyer Oleksandr Lysak emphasized that the bail was not paid because it was excessive. According to him, Kolomoisky does not consider it necessary to contribute any funds, because there is no reasonable suspicion and there are no risks, on the basis of which the suspicion was announced.

In addition, the lawyer Oleh Pushkar noted that during the last year, during the detention of Kolomoiskyi, no risk, which the prosecution says, was justified. In particular, Kolomoisky did not try to hide, did not influence anyone, did not destroy any documents.

The case of Kolomoisky: what you need to knowIn September last year, the SBU and the State Security Service conducted a search at the home of Ihor Kolomoisky as part of an investigation related to the companies “Ukrtatnafta” and “Ukrnafta”, the shareholder of which is a Ukrainian businessman. Subsequently, the Security Service served Kolomoisky with suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Art. 190 (fraud) and Art. 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by crime).

During the meeting on September 2, 2023, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv chose a preventive measure for Kolomoisky in the form of detention for a period of 60 days with the possibility of making a bail of more than 509 million hryvnias. Subsequently, the court of first instance increased the bail amount for Kolomoiskyi to UAH 3.9 billion. The defenders failed to appeal this decision in the appeals court – the court left the businessman’s bail at this level.

During subsequent court hearings, despite the state of health of Ihor Kolomoiskyi, he was continued to be remanded in custody. However, the amount of the pledge decreased to 1 billion 968 million 200 thousand hryvnias.

During the court session in the case of Kolomoiskyi, on July 18, the court extended the term of detention of businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi until September 2, 2024, and also determined the amount of bail in the amount of 650,000 subsistence minimums for able-bodied persons.

However, already on August 29, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of the city of Kyiv granted the request of the prosecutor to change the preventive measure against Ihor Kolomoiskyi from detention to bail in the amount of UAH 1,877,360,000.

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