On July 31, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv prolonged the detention with the possibility of bail for former MP and head of the Regions Party faction Oleksandr Yefremov for two month until Sept. 30.
“The prosecutor’s office announced the completion of a pretrial investigation, and Yefremov this week started studying the materials of the pre-trial investigation,” his defense lawyer Oleksandr Melnikov told Interfax-Ukraine on July 31 evening.
According to the lawyer, the case materials consist of several volumes, and other defendant in the case are also to study these materials.
As reported, Yefremov is a suspect in two criminal proceedings, on abuse of power with aggravating circumstances and forgery, and actions leading to the stirring up of ethnic hostility that resulted in the deaths of people.
On February 16, Pechersky district court in Kyiv decided to place Yefremov into custody and set bail at Hr 3.6 million. On Feb. 17, the bail was paid by, as Yefremov said, his companion-in-arms and former Party of Regions MP Borys Kolesnikov.
On Feb. 17, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine sent Yefremov a notice of suspicion of committing crimes under Part 3, Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which is punishable by a 5-8 year-sentence in prison.
On Feb. 25, Pechersky Court refused to detain Yefremov due to the accusation against Yefremov regarding his statements’ allegedly stirring national hatred that led to grave consequences. The court made Yefremov pay a bail worth 50 minimum wages (Hr 60,900).
On April 30, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv prolonged Yefremov’s detention for two months.
On July 21, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported that it completed the pre-trial investigation into the adoption of “dictatorial laws” in early 2014 against three former MPs: Oleksandr Yefremov and Oleksandr Stoyan of the Party of Regions faction, and Serhiy Hordiyenko of the Communist Party faction.
After the defendants study the case materials, the indictment will be sent to court.
