22 September 2022, Thursday, 10:28 1500

Medvedchuk’s exchange will not affect consideration of his case in court – SSU

Редактор: Roman Vaniyan

The Security Service of Ukraine declares that the exchange of Verkhovna Rada member Viktor Medvedchuk for Ukrainian defenders does not prevent the consideration of his cases in court and sentencing.

Acting Head of the SSU Vasyl Maliuk has said this in a statement, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"Medvedchuk is not just Putin's best man, but a high-quality state traitor documented by us. His guilt is fully recorded in the relevant materials collected by the SSU. In addition, during the work on Medvedchuk's cases, we neutralized more than one agent network, detained many state traitors and obtained a large amount of important information that we use in counterintelligence activities. And now, thanks to the exchange, we were able to extract from Russian captivity the heroes who are waiting for them at home," Maliuk said.

He emphasized that the exchange of Medvedchuk does not prevent consideration of his cases in court.

"This applies to decision-making, sentencing, and confiscation of seized property. After all, in this case, the procedure of a special trial is applied in the absence of the accused," Maliuk emphasized.

He added that the exchange became possible thanks to changes to the current legislation, which regulated the relevant legal mechanisms.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Ukraine returned 215 defenders from Russian captivity, including defenders of Azovstal, in exchange for Verkhovna Rada deputy Viktor Medvedchuk and 55 Russian prisoners.

Since the beginning of the invasion of the Russian Federation, Ukraine has returned 802 captured defenders.