You're reading: Poroshenko faces June 18 court date on abuse of office charges

Former President Petro Poroshenko will stand trial on June 18 on charges of abuse of office, according to lawyer Ilya Novikov, who will represent the president in court. 

The Prosecutor General’s Office charged Poroshenko on June 10. It also issued an official statement announcing that the prosecution would demand pre-trial detention for the former president. Poroshenko’s bail will be set at Hr 10 million ($385,000), according to his lawyer.

According to Ukrainian law, if the prosecution demands custody for a suspect in a non-violent case, bail must be set.

There is little doubt that Poroshenko will post bail. According to Forbes Ukraine, Poroshenko’s net worth stands at $1.4 billion. The former president has also officially declared $47 million and Hr 400 million ($15 million) in cash in his 2019 online asset declaration.

But the charges bring Poroshenko, who currently leads the 27-member European Solidarity faction in parliament, a step closer to facing trial in one of around 17 cases involving him that are currently under investigation. Poroshenko alleges that the cases are politically motivated.

Dodgy appointment

According to the prosecution, Poroshenko violated the law in July 2018 by appointing a notorious official, Serhiy Semochko, to a position in the Foreign Intelligence Service that didn’t legally exist.

Investigative journalists would later discover that Semochko’s family members owned large amounts of expensive real estate, had Russian passports and had extensive ties to Russia.

Semochko was fired in April 2019. The prosecution alleges that the state budget lost a sum equivalent to Semochko’s salary for the period of his tenure. If found guilty, Poroshenko faces up to 10 years in prison.

Poroshenko has called the indictment the “persecution of the opposition” by President Volodymyr Zelensky. He has accused Zelensky of giving “illegal instructions” to prosecutors.

In an interview with the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet recorded on June 3, Zelensky said that Poroshenko “is an experienced manipulator.”

Of all the cases involving Poroshenko, around 12 were submitted by Andriy Portnov, the former deputy chief of staff under Poroshenko’s predecessor, President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in the EuroMaidan Revolution of 2014.

Portnov has openly stated he wants to see Poroshenko behind bars.