KYIV, Apr. 6 (AP) – Ukrainian authorities on Friday released former National Bank deputy director Volodymyr Bondar, charged with corruption, from pretrial detention for health reasons, the Interfax news agency reported.
Bondar was freed because he suffered hypertension and needed hospital treatment. He signed a statement promising not to leave the capital Kyiv, Interfax said.
Bondar, who served at the bank under Viktor Yushchenko, who is now Ukraine’s Prime Minister, was arrested March 19. Prosecutors charged Bondar with making a deal he knew was unprofitable to deposit $75 million in Ukrainian hard currency reserves at the Cyprus-registered affiliate of Credit Suisse First Boston bank. The deal allegedly resulted in the loss of $5 million for Ukraine.
The National Bank has denied this accusation, saying the deal was profitable, and Yushchenko has said he is convinced of Bondar’s innocence.
The case comes amid a tense political standoff in Ukraine between opposition forces who accuse President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in an alleged murder of a journalist, and also say he is persecuting opposition figures with trumped-up corruption charges. A former deputy prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has also been charged with corruption after leaving office in January.
