Ukrainian TV presenters and former culture minister want to bail out oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskyi

Presenters from the TV channel 1+1 have asked the Kyiv Court of Appeal, where businessman Ihor Kolomoiskyi's pre-trial restriction is being challenged on 25 September, to release the oligarch on bail. [1+1 is part of the 1+1 Media Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine and one of Kolomoiskyi’s most significant assets – ed.]

Source: Suspilne; Anti-Corruption Action Center

Details: The defence called on the court to revoke Kolomoiskyi’s arrest with an alternative bail of UAH 509 million (about US$13,000). The prosecutor requested that the hearing be held behind closed doors. However, the lawyers did not object to it being held publicly.

1+1 TV presenters Nataliia Moseichuk, Alla Mazur and Yurii Horbunov, as well as former Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, said that they are prepared to bail Kolomoiskyi out.

Shmuel Kaminetsky, the Chief Rabbi of Dnipro, also announced his readiness to do this.

Kolomoiskyi told journalists he felt well and noted that he had not communicated with the authorities because his phone had been taken away.

Moseichuk described the decision to bail out Kolomoiskyi as "a story about humanity", adding that it was made collectively.

The Anti-Corruption Action Center has posted quotes from several of the speeches made in court.

Background:

• Kolomoiskyi was served with a third notice of suspicion on 15 September.
• The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), the Economic Security Bureau and the Prosecutor General's Office served Kolomoiskyi with a notice of suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code: fraud and legalisation (laundering) of the proceeds of crime.
• Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi District Court remanded Kolomoiskyi in custody for 60 days with the option to pay bail of UAH 510 million (about US$13.7 million).
• On 7 September, detectives from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, with the approval of the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, served Kolomoiskyi and five members of a group he had set up with a notice of suspicion for misappropriating UAH 9.2 billion (roughly US$247 million) from PrivatBank [a large Ukrainian bank co-founded by Kolomoiskyi – ed.]. 
• On 8 September, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office froze Kolomoiskyi's assets and property for two days.

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