Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko has rejected treason charges brought against him by the Ukrainian legal system. Concern has been expressed both at home and abroad that the charges may be politically motivated.
Poroshenko is accused of trading state cash for coal with Russian-backed forces in occupied territories of eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 while he was President.
On Dec. 17 he hurriedly left Ukraine as the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) attempted to serve him with a statement of suspicion and summons to appear for questioning.
On Dec. 20 the SBI charged him with “high treason.”
According to the SBI: “The investigation has concluded that the suspects’ activities made [the Ukrainian] energy sector dependent on Russia and the terrorist organizations, which undermined the state’s economic security in 2014-2015, deprived it of chances to diversify sources of [supplies of energy] resources, and provided Russia with ample opportunities to interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs and conduct subversive activities against it.”
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity Party web page issued a statement on Dec. 20 calling the charges a “politically motivated fake suspicion,” and they indicated that the former president would return to Ukraine after “his high-level meetings” abroad.
The SBI summoned Poroshenko for questioning on Dec. 23, but his supporters say that he is not expected to return until after the New Year and Orthodox Christmas holidays.
Earlier this year prosecutors had mentioned Poroshenko as being linked with pro-Kremlin politician and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk whom they suspect of treason and terrorist-financing for helping to broker state coal purchases from the occupied areas.
The U.S. Embassy has posted a message on social media stating that “All citizens in a democracy deserve to be treated equally and fairly under the law. The justice system should not be used for the purpose of settling political scores.”
Melinda Simmons, U.K. Ambassador has tweeted that it is important that the Poroshenko case is conducted “independently, impartially and professionally, ensuring fairness and respect for due process,” and other foreign representatives have expressed similar concern.
Most recently, the “Group of Friends of Ukraine in the European Parliament” issued a statement from Brussels on Dec. 23 noting their “grave concern at recent decisions of the Prosecutor General’s Office to issue a suspicion to the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on charges of high treason and financing terrorism.
They called on the SBI and Prosecutor General’s Office to be independent, impartial, fair and transparent in conducting their investigation into the case.
Presidents and prime ministers, both serving and former, are not above the law and charges against former leaders are not so uncommon.
In the U.S. the charges brought against presidents Nixon, Clinton and Trump were huge news. France launched investigations into former presidents Chirac and Sarkozy. Israel proceeded with the trial of Netenyahu, and South Africa with that of Zuma. Brazil tried former presidents Temer and Da Silva.
And recently Austrian Chancellor Kurz resigned after being implicated in a corruption scandal.
Poroshenko’s indictment has split domestic opinion into those who believe that President Volodymyr Zelensky is merely seeking to damage the standing of his leading political rival, and those who believe that the former president should have been charged with corruption long ago.
Investment banker Serhiy Fursa argues the move will damage Ukraine’s image:
“You don’t have to love Poroshenko. But at a time when the country needs an international coalition to oppose Putin, it doesn’t make much sense to cast Ukraine as a state which resorts to political persecution, Fursa wrote in NV (Novoye Vremya).
“Yet that is exactly how the suspicions against Poroshenko will be perceived in the West.”
Former defense minister Anatoly Hrytsenko, however, summed up the opposite position, describing Poroshenko’s “escape” as an act of cowardice. “All that counts now is saving his skin by fleeing the country and then complaining about ‘political persecution,’” he says.
