Ukraine asks Moldova to return former client Bogdan
The Pechersk Court of Kyiv canceled the order of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office on the extradition of Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon, signed on August 29, 2016. The court decision states that it is not subject to appeal.
This was reported by the Moldovan publication NewsMaker, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“All decisions to implicate him as a defendant must be annulled,” said Platon’s Ukrainian lawyer, Evgeniy Grushovets.
In 2018, Platon was convicted in Moldova of fraud and sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison. Grushovets explained that Ukraine gave its consent to the criminal prosecution of Platon on the basis of an extradition decision, which has now been declared illegal. Only after sending the businessman to Ukraine can the Moldovan authorities re-request his extradition.
The story has a political aspect. Previously, Platon claimed that he was extradited to Moldova on the personal orders of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. He allegedly did this at the request of his oligarch friend, the former “master of Moldova” Vlad Plahotniuc, “for a friendly bribe” of 3 million euros or dollars.
Platon claims that Poroshenko personally controlled the extradition operation and even allocated 2 planes from his personal fleet. The first one flew to Chisinau for money, the second one carried Plato. Poroshenko allegedly explained his activity in the extradition case by the need to maintain an anti-Russian course in Moldova.
Additional political nuances to this story are given by the fact that in 2016 Platon was defended by Andrey Bogdan, the current head of the office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
While in a Moldovan prison, Platon not only participated in the Ukrainian trial via video link, but also initiated the initiation of a criminal case against Poroshenko, the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko and the former head of the SBU Vasily Gritsak. The articles under which Platon accuses Poroshenko, Lutsenko and Gritsak (“Exceeding power or official authority” and “Violation of the right to defense”) provide for court sentences of up to 10 years.
To this vinaigrette it is necessary to add that the Tverskoy Court of Moscow on August 14 put Platon on the wanted list and arrested him in absentia. In Russia, he is involved together with Plahotniuc in the case of withdrawing 37 billion rubles. His sister Elena has already given a confession to the investigation.
Platon received Ukrainian citizenship back in 1992, putting a stamp in his Soviet passport (that’s what everyone did then) with the surname Kobalev (the surname of his ex-wife). If we take into account that in 2009–2010 he was a member of the Moldovan parliament under the name Platon, then he also has a Moldovan passport. However, dual citizenship is prohibited in Ukraine. According to some reports, the Moldovan businessman also has a third citizenship – Russian citizenship.
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