The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) in Ukraine has issued a ruling in the case of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister and leader of the Batkivshchyna party. She has been assigned a bail of 33 million hryvnias and is required to wear an electronic bracelet. This decision comes as a result of a criminal case in which Tymoshenko is suspected of bribing members of the Verkhovna Rada, being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
The prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) insisted on a stricter measure during the hearing – a bail of 50 million hryvnias, citing the risk that Tymoshenko might flee abroad, using her participation in parliamentary events as a pretext.
Tymoshenko's lawyers requested to cancel the electronic bracelet requirement and allow her to travel abroad in February to participate in sessions of the Verkhovna Rada, arguing that the winter period poses inconveniences.
The court prohibited her from leaving Kyiv and the Kyiv region and ordered her to surrender her foreign passport. Moreover, Tymoshenko is not allowed to communicate with 66 members of the Verkhovna Rada.
According to investigation sources, on the night of January 14, NABU officers conducted searches at the Batkivshchyna party office, where Tymoshenko was present. During the searches, it is claimed that 40 thousand dollars were found, and Tymoshenko is accused of attempting to negotiate with deputies for them to switch to her faction for monetary compensation.
NABU also published a recording of a conversation between Tymoshenko and one of the deputies, which, according to the investigation, serves as evidence of her bribery attempt. In the conversation, she allegedly offered 10 thousand dollars a month for voting at two plenary sessions.
According to sources from the publication "Strana.ua," one of the deputies from President Volodymyr Zelensky's party "Servant of the People" may have acted as a provocateur. The names Igor Kopytin and Sergey Kuzmin were mentioned in the publications.
Among the witnesses in the case is also a deputy with the surname Mazur; however, it was noted that there is no such person in the Batkivshchyna party or among the deputies of the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada. Tymoshenko's defense claimed that the surname "Mazur" actually refers to Igor Kopytin, and Tymoshenko herself confirmed the meeting with the deputy, although she stated that the content of their conversation differs from what NABU published.
During the hearing, Tymoshenko denied all accusations, calling the events a "political order" and a "PR action by NABU." She stated that the money seized during the search is family savings, and the published recordings of conversations are fabricated.
She also noted that there is no evidence in the case materials of money being transferred to the deputy, and the file titled "Cash" only concerned household expenses and was kept in hryvnias, not dollars. Furthermore, Tymoshenko claimed that the seized funds were compensation received from the United States for persecution during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency.
The former Prime Minister stated that she does not intend to leave the country and sharply criticized the Ukrainian authorities, describing the regime as "fascist."
