On April 1, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine upheld Roman Chervinskyʼs complaint and declared the norm under which he was held in custody unconstitutional.
This is stated on the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Part 5 of Article 615 of the Criminal Procedure Code determines that if during martial law the court cannot convene on time for the first (preparatory) hearing, then a person already in a pre-trial detention center automatically remains there for a period of up to two months.
The court ruled that this provision is unconstitutional. It will expire in three months, and the Verkhovna Rada must approve a new provision.
Who is Roman Chervinsky?
Colonel Chervinsky is a former employee of the SBU, the Main Intelligence Directorate, and the Special Operations Forces. In 2020, Chervinsky was involved in an operation to detain “Wagnerians” in Belarus.
In his statement to The Washington Post and Der Spiegel, Chervinsky said that he also “planned and implemented” operations to assassinate leaders of pro-Russian militants in Ukraine and “kidnap a witness” who could confirm that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014.
On April 21, 2023, he was suspected in the case of the failed hijacking of a Russian plane. According to the investigation, he and several other servicemen decided to carry out an operation to hijack a Russian plane without the consent of state bodies and special services. SBU believes that due to their actions, in particular Chervinsky, Russia received information about the placement of Air Force pilots and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield in the Kirovohrad region.
Chervinsky is also suspected of fraud and extortion. In December 2023, the prosecutorʼs office reported that it suspects Chervinsky of trying to seize $100 000 of an entrepreneurʼs funds by impersonating an influential official of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.
We are talking about the events of July 2020. Chervinsky allegedly promised the businessman to resolve the issue of returning the detained batch of tobacco products to him for a certain amount. The ex-spy denies involvement in this crime.
Chervinsky was in pre-trial detention from April 2023 to July 2024, and is now under nightly house arrest.
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