Court extends Medvedchuk’s house arrest until Sept 7

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has extended until September 7 the measure of restraint in the form of house arrest for MP Viktor Medvedchuk from the Opposition Platform – For Life faction in parliament, a suspect in the case of treason.

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Judge Serhiy Vovk issued a respective ruling on Friday, July 9.

"To apply [to Medvedchuk] the measure of restraint in the form of round-the-clock house arrest, prohibiting him to leave his place of residence until September 7, 2021 inclusive," the judge said.

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court began a hearing in the Medvedchuk case at 09:00 on July 8. The hearing lasted about 13 hours. After that, Judge Vovk went to the deliberation room and stated that he would read out the ruling at about 08:00 or 08:30 on July 9.

On May 11, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova signed suspicion notices for MPs Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak, who are suspected of treason and the attempted plundering of national resources in Crimea.

The investigation believes that Medvedchuk negotiated with the aggressor state to re-register the Hlyboka oil and gas field in the Black Sea, 75 km from Feodosia, and to extract minerals that are Ukraine's national resource.

In addition, Medvedchuk is suspected of treason (passing secret information about a military unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the aggressor state).

On May 13, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court selected the measure of restraint in the form of round-the-clock house arrest for Medvedchuk and ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet until July 9.

The Prosecutor General's Office extended the term of the pretrial investigation in the case of MPs Medvedchuk and Kozak until November 11.