Former Ukrainian President and leader of the European Solidarity Party Petro Poroshenko has refused to testify as a suspect in criminal proceedings regarding the appointment of Serhiy Semochko as first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, head of the department of the Main Investigative Department of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) Vadym Prymachok has said.
“Today, Poroshenko came to the SBI as a suspect. He refused to testify on the basis of the suspicion. He was also given summons for interrogation for other dates, but he refused to receive the summons in the presence of witnesses,” Prymachok told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the investigative actions with Poroshenko on July 1.
He said Poroshenko was notified of the need to appear for questioning.
“The defender of the suspect was handed a copy of the petition to extend the period of the pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings,” he added.
Prymachok said the petition for extending the terms of the pre-trial investigation to six months would be considered by Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, separately from the consideration of the petition for choosing a preventive measure.
As reported, the program “Our money with Denys Bihus” anti-corruption investigations published a story and information that the family of the first deputy head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, the former head of the SBU’s economic counterintelligence, Serhiy Semochko, has millions of dollars worth of homes near Kyiv, and his relatives, besides Ukrainian, have Russian citizenship.
The Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) launched a criminal inquiry into illegal enrichment, in which Semochko is a defendant.
The SBU said that as part of the criminal case opened on the basis of journalist Bihus’ lawsuit on the charge of high treason described in Part 1 of Article 111 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code it is investigating a number of media reports with respect to Semochko.
On Oct. 17, Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Yehor Bozhok said that there are no legal grounds for dismissing his first deputy Semochko.
Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court later said in its ruling that the SBU counterintelligence had confirmed that Semochko’s wife and daughter have Russian citizenship.
Investigators sought the court to provide access to the phone conversations of Semochko and his family over about five years. The court granted the investigator’s motion.
