Prosecutor's Office asking court to ban Tymoshenko from communicating with other MPs

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) is asking the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) to ban the leader of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko, from communicating with other 66 MPs.

The SAPO prosecutor said this at a court hearing, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The prosecutor is asking to limit Tymoshenko's communication with MPs, as she may influence them.

The prosecutor is also demanding that Tymoshenko be required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and be prohibited from traveling outside Kyiv and the Kyiv Region without the permission of the prosecutor and the court.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the leader of the Batkivshchyna faction in the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko, faces 5 to 10 years in prison for bribery. Part 4 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CC of Ukraine) provides for imprisonment for a term of five to ten years with or without confiscation of property for offering, promising or providing an illegal benefit to an official who holds a particularly responsible position. This is the most severe sanction for this crime, which concerns the bribery of officials holding the highest positions.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) has published records in the case of bribery of MPs: according to the investigation, Tymoshenko coordinated voting and personnel decisions. Yulia Tymoshenko reacted to the searches in the party office of the political force and called it political pressure. NABU and SAPO caught the head of one of the parliamentary factions in the Verkhovna Rada giving bribes for voting.