Stanislav Tolstosheyev, the 22-year-old son of a businessman suspected of killing an elderly woman in a car crash in Kyiv, has been released on $5,666 bail, his lawyer Aleksandr Alefanov said on Jan. 18.
Alefanov said the defense team is planning to appeal, claiming the bail amount was set too high. The prosecutor’s office in Kyiv said on Jan. 16 ask the court to increase the bail amount.
Tolstosheyev was hospitalized after crashing his Mercedes SUV onto a sidewalk on Jan. 9. A 70-year-old woman died at the scene, and a 62-year-old man was injured.
He told journalists that he had fainted before the car crash and did not remember anything.
Tolstosheyev was detained a week after the incident, at a court hearing in Kyiv on Jan. 15.
Many expected the family to post bail quickly.
Tolstosheyev has been identified as the son of businessman Andriy Tolstosheyev from Donetsk Oblast. He owns a construction business and was reportedly close with local members of the now-defunct Party of Regions, the former ruling party of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, also from Donetsk Oblast. Andriy Tolstosheyev’s firm won state construction tenders during Yanukovych’s rule.
A video, recorded from one of the cameras at videoprobki.ua, shows the moment of the collision
Stanislav Tolstosheyev was supposed to appear in court on Jan. 14, but police reported that doctors had not released him from hospital because of a heart condition that made him “non-transportable.”
The excuse was met with skepticism by journalists and social media users, who believed someone was covering for the young man.
“I’m not a monk, I’m a young man. I was living a normal life. And despite the congenital heart disorder I could let myself have a drink or something else,” Tolstosheyev told reporters on Jan. 15.
Tolstosheyev’s lifestyle made waves in social media, as it was hardly compatible with the heart condition his family claimed he had.
He bragged about his hard-partying lifestyle on Instagram and Vkontakte, a popular Russian social network. Most photos show him holding alcoholic drinks, smoking or driving a car.
A video that Stanislav Tolstosheyev posted on Instagram shows him flipping Hr 50 bills into the air.
In a short Instagram video that became especially popular after the car accident, Tolstosheyev, wearing aviator sunglasses, takes a puff on his cigarette and then starts flipping Hr 50 bills into the air, grinning.
