You're reading: Pechersky court refuses to arrest ex-justice minister Lavrynovych, sets Hr 1.2 million bail

Pechersky District Court of Kyiv has allowed former justice minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Lavrynovych to pay bail of Hr 1.2 million and ruled that there are no grounds for his arrest, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

After the court hearing, Lavrynovych told journalists that he will appeal.

He said his son, Maksym, could pay the bail.

As reported, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) asked the court to permit the arrest of former justice minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych, chief of the PGO special inquiry department Ihor Slobodianyk said.

“Today a motion was presented [to Lavrynovych]. At least three hours [were] needed for lawyers to get familiar with the materials, that’s why today we’re short in time due to clear reasons, and tomorrow in the early morning this motion will be submitted for the court’s consideration,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on July 31.

Lavrynovych is suspected of committing an offense under Article 191, Part 5 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (property misappropriation, embezzlement by abuse of office on a large scale or by a group).

Specifically, Lavrynovych is accused of misappropriating over Hr 8.5 million through abuse of office, which was “spent unlawfully and baselessly on engaging a foreign firm in order to conceal the facts of criminal legislation violations by law enforcement authorities and courts while carrying out the inquiry and court proceedings of the Tymoshenko case.”