Former Ukrainian president Poroshenko charged with treason
Former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has been charged with treason, the State Bureau of Investigations announced on Dec. 20.
The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) has charged Ukraine’s fifth president with high treason and aiding terrorist organizations. The official announcement of the charges says they stem from allegedly criminal schemes for importing coal from occupied areas of the Donbas region – formerly Ukraine’s key coal-mining region.
The SBI alleges that former President Poroshenko “colluded with the leadership of the Russian Federation” and their puppet insurgents in eastern Ukraine, financing these insurgents to the tune of UAH 1.5 billion, and jeopardizing the energy security of Ukraine.
“… (Poroshenko’s actions) jeopardized the security of Ukraine’s energy sector in 2014-2015, left us unable to properly diversify our energy imports, and empowered Russia to further subvert and meddle in our internal affairs,” the SBI says.
Oleksandr Turchynov, the chairman of Poroshenko’s political party European Solidarity, stated that the former president will cooperate with the bureau and appear for questioning on his return from abroad.
“Note that even (Volodymyr) Zelensky’s puppet Prosecutor General (Iryna) Venediktova refused to sign off on these trumped-up charges, delegating it instead to one of her deputies, (Oleksiy) Symonenko,” Turchynov said.
He added that Zelensky is “following in the steps of Viktor Yanukovych (Ukraine’s fourth president, who fled the country to Russia in February 2014, after months of protests against his regime) in both shirking his duty to defend Ukraine and in prosecuting his political opponents.”
Zelensky is therefore “doomed to repeat Yanukovych’s fall,” Turchynov said.
Poroshenko has been the target of several criminal investigations since Zelensky became president – all of which Poroshenko has claimed were politically motivated.
None of the investigations involving Poroshenko have gone to trial.
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