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Ex-President Poroshenko will face jail term or leave Ukraine, court official says

Several cases have been opened against Poroshenko

KIEV, August 20. /TASS/. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko will either face a prison term or have to leave the country in the wake of criminal cases based on complaints filed by attorney Andrei Portnov, Kiev District Administrative Court President Pavel Vovk said in an interview with Ukraine’s Gordon news outlet.

He was confident that Portnov "will go the whole way." "The only thing that could stop him is if the new government makes a deal with Poroshenko to maintain his immunity. If it doesn’t happen, Portnov will get him and Poroshenko will have to request political asylum somewhere or, in the worst case, to go to jail," Vovk pointed out.

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He also said that he had many times been invited to meet with Poroshenko and members of his inner circle, who had expressed their views on how the court should operate. Vovk noted that he "listened to what they said and expressed my own opinion." "Pyotr Alexeyevich [Poroshenko] did not like my opinion on the matter," the court president added.

In this regard, he mentioned his disagreements with the former president over two high-profile cases, which led to an open standoff between the government and the court. According to Vovk, one of those cases concerned a tariff dispute between Batkivshchina party’s leader Yulia Timoshenko and the country’s government, while the second one was related to the nationalization of Privatbank. "Poroshenko did not meet with me then but I received a message saying that ‘if so, you are done for," Vovk said.

Several cases have been opened against Poroshenko who is suspected of high treason, abuse of power, money laundering, tax evasion, an attempt to usurp judicial authority and illegally appointing ministers in 2016 when there was no coalition in the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

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