The High Anti-Corruption Court has imposed a preventive measure on Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the Batkivshchyna party and parliamentary faction of the same name, in the form of bail set at 33 million hryvnia (the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had requested 50 million). She will be fitted with an electronic bracelet, according to a broadcast from the courtroom.
Tymoshenko is prohibited from leaving the Kyiv region without the investigator’s permission and must surrender her passport.
In addition, the court has banned her from communicating with several dozen MPs.
On 13 January, the NABU and the SAPO announced that they had exposed the head of one of the Verkhovna Rada factions, who had offered bribes to MPs to vote for or against certain bills. Yulia Tymoshenko subsequently confirmed the searches at the Batkivshchyna office and stated that she categorically rejected all accusations.
On 14 January, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed that it had served a notice of suspicion to the MP under Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and published audio recordings in which the suspect discusses bribes to MPs. According to the investigation, this was a regular mechanism of ‘cooperation.’ In the published audio recordings, a voice believed to belong to Tymoshenko discusses the amount of possible bribes and gives instructions to vote for or against specific bills, particularly those concerning appointments or resignations.