Kyiv Court of Appeal has overturned Solomensky District Court’s ruling to arrest the property of son of Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, Oleksandr, and has sent the matter to for reconsideration.
The relevant decision was taken by the Kyiv Court of Appeals at its meeting on December 19, lawyer Andriy Tarasov told Interfax-Ukraine.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating the criminal proceeding about embezzling more than Hr 14 million for the purchase of backpacks for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in late 2014 – early 2015. Detectives find out the circumstances associated with the forgery of warehouse documents for the delivered backpacks.
Two individuals detained on October 31 as part of the investigation into the so-called ‘backpack case’ were notified on the same day of suspicion of committing a crime under Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (appropriation, embezzlement or taking possession of property through abuse of power). These two are former Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar and Oleksandr Avakov, the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
Later NABU detectives notified the third detainee of suspicion in committing a crime during the purchase of backpacks for the Interior Ministry in late 2014 and early 2015. Bloc of Petro Poroshenko MP Serhiy Leschenko said earlier, referring to his own sources, that NABU detectives had detained in Kharkiv head of IT firm Turboseo Volodymyr Lytvyn, who also runs a company that had to produce a batch of backpacks for the Interior Ministry.
On November 1, Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv chose for Oleksandr Avakov and two other defendants of the ‘backpacks case’ the measure of restraint in the form of a personal obligation.
On November 8, reports appeared that Kyiv’s Solomiansky district court ruled to seize the property of two persons involved in the so-called “military backpacks” case – Oleksandr Avakov and former deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar.
