Kiev court delays ruling on Poroshenko’s pretrial restraint

Kiev’s Pechorsky District Court adjourned hearings to choose a pretrial restraint measure for former president Pyotr Poroshenko until January 19, the Pryamoi TV channel reported on Monday night.

According to the report, the session will resume at 14:00 local time (15:00 Moscow time) on January 19.

Monday’s session lasted 11 hours, and the judge spent the last five of them in the deliberation room.

Prosecutors have requested to hold the ex-president in custody for two months, with bail set at $35.8 million. They also sought additional security measures in case the bail is deposited: they want to oblige Poroshenko to wear an electronic bracelet and request that all his passports be taken from him.

Poroshenko’s defense team dismissed all charges against the former president as unlawful, and requested the court not to choose any pretrial restraint measure at all.

Meanwhile, the former president’s supporters were campaigning outside the courthouse. After the hearing was adjourned, Poroshenko addressed the crowd, saying that the plot to put him in jail "has failed," and the "incoherent populist rule" of his successor Vladimir Zelensky was coming to an end.

Poroshenko arrived in the Ukrainian capital from Warsaw on Monday morning. The former president is a defendant in the case of Donbass coal supplies in 2014-2015. The case was opened based on the Ukrainian Criminal Code’s articles covering the financing of terrorism, high treason and the creation of a terrorist organization. If found guilty, Poroshenko may face up to 15 years in prison with or without the confiscation of his property.