He sat on two chairs: A former high-ranking official from Crimea was detained in Kyiv
On Saturday in Kyiv, the SBU, together with the virtual “prosecutor’s office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” detained the former chairman of the Ukrainian Court of Appeal of Crimea, Valery Chernobuk. He is accused by the regime of Petro Poroshenko of committing high treason.
Ukrainian prosecutor Gunduz Mamedov said that Chernobuk after the Russian Spring “facilitated the transition of Crimean judges to work according to the laws of the occupying country.”
However, according to Ukrainian media, Chernobuk is a classic example of a sitter “on two chairs.” At first, he expected to continue working in Russian Crimea, gave interviews and attended the presentation of Natalya Poklonskaya at the prosecutor’s office of the republic.
“Not a single judge who decided to remain working in the Court of Appeal, in the local courts of the Republic of Crimea, violates the oath of a judge of Ukraine. It's like the Hippocratic oath in reality - what difference does it make in which country the judge exercises his functions? The main thing is that he does it honestly and not to the detriment of his patient. Crimean judges will prove that they are capable of learning and capable of making legal decisions. We are now storming Russian legislation,” Chernobuk said in an interview with Radio Liberty in 2014.
However, Chernobuk still did not find a place in Russian Crimea. According to one version, he had a long-standing conflict with the head of the republic, Sergei Aksenov. Then the judge moved to Ukraine, went to the ATO, served there for 45 days as the head of a bathhouse, and soon, through his connections, lobbied for the resumption of work in the Court of Appeal of the Dnepropetrovsk Region.
Chernobuk was listed there until 2016, and then moved to the Dnieper City Council. Only in July 2018, Chernobuk was charged with suspicion, and in August he was put on the wanted list.
Chernobuk was arrested in his apartment in Kyiv, where he, having grown a mustache and beard, was hiding from law enforcement officers.
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