The State Border Service of Ukraine has again prevented the defense counsel of Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former people's deputy, Serhiy Vlasenko, from leaving Ukraine.
At Boryspil Airport, the State Border officers handed Vlasenko a resolution banning him from leaving the territory of the country based on a previous judicial ruling, the press service of the Batkivschyna Party reported.
“This contradicts the statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office, that they have no claims to me. This is political repression, which continues to escalate and a sign that they are not going to stop. Therefore I stress that I expect to be arrested soon, which will be the next step, which is done in order to deprive Yulia Tymoshenko of a proper professional defense in the fabricated criminal cases against her,” Vlasenko said.
The report also says that the ex-MP was heading to the European Parliament, where he was going to speak about the ruling of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, which deprived him of his parliamentary mandate.
At the same time, the State Border Service of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that the ban to leave Ukraine for Vlasenko is connected to the old court ruling, based on which Vlasenko was previously not let out of the country.
As reported, the State Border Service did not allow Vlasenko to leave Ukraine on January 24, when he planned to fly to Strasbourg to attend a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
On March 6 the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine stripped Vlasenko of his parliamentary powers, satisfying a lawsuit lodged by Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak. The speaker said in the lawsuit that Vlasenko combined his parliamentary powers with advocacy.
Vlasenko earlier said that the Prosecutor General’s Office opened several criminal cases against him and was going to arrest him.
On March 11, the PGO refuted the claims and said that they were currently holding inquiry into only one matter – the allegations of Vlasenko’s former wife that her ex-husband was beating her.
