Ukrainian MP to appear in court

Prosecutors have brought to court an indictment against Nestor Shufrych, a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) of the 9th convocation from the banned Opposition Platform for Life party (OPFL), and his former assistant.

Source: Office of the Prosecutor General; State Bureau of Investigation

Quote from the Prosecutor General's Office: "They are charged with financing actions committed with the aim of violent change and overthrow of the constitutional order, seizure of state power, change of the boundaries of the territory and state border of Ukraine (Part 3 of Article 110-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In addition, the MP is also charged with high treason (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)."

Details: The reports do not specify the names of the defendants, but the circumstances of the situation suggest that Nestor Shufrych and Viacheslav Cherepania are the perpetrators.

The investigation established that the defendants, along with other persons close to the MP, after the occupation of the peninsula by the Russian Federation, ensured the registration of property - a house and a plot of land in the settlement of Simeiz, Crimea - under the laws of the Russian Federation. The MP (Shufrych - ed.) acquired this property in 2013 through an affiliated company and trustees.

In 2016, in order to protect the property on the temporarily occupied peninsula, the defendants organised the conclusion of a security contract with the illegal paramilitary formation of the occupation authorities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea - Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Okhrana" of the Russian Guard for the Republic of Crimea.

They later organised the transfer and payment of over RUB 648,700 [approximately US$7,278] to the Russian Federal Guard, which is involved in the war against Ukraine, for the protection of the property.

In addition, the Ukrainian MP was recruited by the Russian Federal Security Service and performed the tasks of one of the former Deputy Secretaries of the National Security and Defence Council who left for Moscow in 2014.

The accused systematically spread Russian narratives in his speeches and interviews, conducting subversive activities against Ukraine. He supported the ideas of a pro-Russian orientation of Ukraine's further development.

The MP, knowing about the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine by Russia, continued to carry out subversive activities against the Ukrainian state.

The accused are in custody.

Background: 

• On 15 September 2023, it became known that the Security Service of Ukraine had searched the home of MP Nestor Shufrych, elected from the now banned pro-Russian party OPFL, and found St George's ribbons, medals and coats of the Russian armed forces. Shufrych was suspected of treason.
• The Security Service of Ukraine also found a document with a plan for the autonomy of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, dated 2014, signed by the now deprived of Ukrainian citizenship ex-MP Viktor Medvedchuk and Shufrych himself.
• At the same time, the court imposed a pre-trial restriction on Shufrych in the form of detention without bail.
• On 8 February 2024, Nestor Shufrych was served with a new notice of suspicion of financing the Russian Guard.

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