The Pechersk District Court chose a preventive measure against the ex-Deputy Minister of Health Pavlo Kovtonyuk, due to which the state budget lost UAH 1.9 million.
This is reported by LB.ua.
The prosecutor wanted to place Kovtonyuk under night house arrest with an electronic bracelet and demand that he surrender his foreign passport. The court rejected the request of the prosecutorʼs office and released the expositor of the Ministry of Health on personal recognizance until November 27.
Kovtonyukʼs lawyer Andriy Slyusar noted that the suspicion is completely unfounded, and added that the suspect has not worked at the Ministry of Health for three years, he has no documents that he could hide, and he still cannot travel abroad.
"Applying a preventive measure in this situation is inappropriate. There is no risk that can be prevented in this way. Kovtonyuk had previously come to the investigator and will continue to do so. It seems to me that the investigators will avoid him, not the other way around. Because the suspicion is completely unfounded, we will prove it and force them to do their job — collect evidence. This is required by the code — investigators must gather evidence that exonerates a person, not only those that accuse him," Slyusar noted.
The lawyer believes that the case will be closed at the investigation stage.
- On September 28, employees of the State Bureau of Investigation reported the suspicion to the former deputy minister of health, because of which the state budget lost 1.9 million hryvnias. He signed the deed of acceptance and transfer of the Prometheus hematopoietic stem cell donor registry software, but the executors of the order never handed it over to the ministry. The exhibitor is suspected of official negligence, which caused grave consequences for state interests (Part 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). He faces imprisonment for up to 5 years.