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Kiev court orders security service to launch probe against Poroshenko for high treason

A petition contends the Ukrainian president supposedly bankrolls the Russian army in the Donbass region through his company Roshen

KIEV, July 26. /TASS/. Kiev’s Pechersky District Court has ordered Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) to open a criminal case over high treason committed by Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, former Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor-General, former Deputy Head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Defense Attorney Renat Kuzmin said on Wednesday.

"Despite the unprecedented pressure from the authorities, the court, nevertheless, ordered the SBU to investigate President Pyotr Poroshenko for committing high treason," he wrote in Facebook posting the relevant court ruling.

The court made this decision on the basis of the attorney’s petition. Kuzmin explained that the issue at hand is that the Ukrainian president allegedly had financed the Russian army he is fighting in the Donbass region as the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces "from 2013 to 2017 through the Roshen company in Lipetsk owned by him."

Kuzmin also posted a copy of the SBU’s response, which states that there are no violations in Poroshenko’s actions, since Ukraine did not impose sanctions that could prohibit the activities of the Lipetsk Confectionary Factory Roshen in Russia.

In addition to that, SBU agents threatened the attorney with criminal prosecution for defamation. In light of that, Kuzmin filed a complaint requesting disciplinary action against the intelligence officers.