Mahamedrasulov case: court upholds detention of NABU detective. VIDEO&PHOTOS
The Kyiv Court of Appeal considered a defense appeal by NABU detective Ruslan Mahamedrasulov against the extension of his pre-trial detention.
This was reported by a Censor.NET correspondent.
Mahamedrasulov has been brought before the judges, and the hearing has begun.
The defense requested to question witness Yusuf Mameshev, with whom Mahamedrasulov allegedly discussed the sale of technical hemp.
Commenting on media reports of pressure on a key witness, the prosecutor said this individual is not a witness and has not been questioned as such.
The judge ultimately denied the defense motion.
The defense team also objected to the inclusion of an amended suspicion notice, since it was not reviewed by the first-instance court.
Defense lawyer Olena Shcherban argued that the charges amount to political persecution tied to Mahamedrasulov’s work at NABU.
He is accused of preparing to aid the aggressor state. Shcherban stressed that the mention of "Dagestan" in the recordings is highly questionable and not corroborated.
"Unfortunately, the court refused to hear the witness. The defense only learned of him the day before, so we could not raise it in the lower court. Public sources already show that the matter concerned Uzbekistan, not Dagestan," Shcherban said.
She added that the investigative body has not provided the full audio recordings, preventing the defense from conducting its own expert analysis.
"The prosecution has essentially fabricated this case, along with several pieces of evidence. For instance, in the case file, when the prosecution refers to an email allegedly belonging to a company where documents were to be sent, the defense found through a simple public search that the address did not belong to any Russian company. It belonged to a children’s institution in Dagestan," Shcherban said.
The company in question does not even list activities related to hemp trade in its business registry.
"The crime itself and its preparation could not have happened. Today, a man is in pre-trial detention over the words ‘Dagestan’ and ‘Uzbekistan.’ Other evidence in the case is being used by the SBU and prosecutors merely to back this conversation as if it actually took place," the lawyer emphasized.
The lawyer stated that Mahamedrasulov is effectively being held hostage by the SBU, with the main goal being to halt NABU investigations into senior officials of the President’s Office and the president personally.
Defense lawyer Melnyk reminded the court that Mahamedrasulov suffered a stroke in 2014 and underwent brain surgery, making his detention in a remand center incompatible with his health condition.
The NABU detective told the court that he had taken part in the country’s defense, so claims of aiding the aggressor state sounded absurd.
"I believe there are no grounds or risks for me to be kept in pre-trial detention. I am ready to mount my defense because I know what I did while working at the Bureau and why I have now been barred from working, because, as I understand it, there are certain ‘risks’ for state authorities," Mahamedrasulov said, adding that he sees no risk that would justify keeping him in pre-trial detention.
The prosecutor noted that the number of charges imputed to him had increased. He said the suspicion was well-founded and the risks had not diminished.
The prosecution argued that the preventive measure had been properly chosen and lawfully extended.
The prosecutor added that the experts who examined the recordings of Mahamedrasulov’s conversations were not told whose voices they were analyzing, to ensure objectivity.
What did the court decide?
The court denied the defense motion, upholding the detention order.
After the court hearing, defense lawyer Olena Shcherban told reporters that the Mahamedrasulov case stems from the fact that, because of the war, Western partners have simply eased their scrutiny.
"For a long time, they were ashamed to speak to President Zelenskyy and criticize him for what was happening inside the country. As a result, they let the genie out of the bottle in the form of the SSU, and it will no longer be possible to put it back. Over one ordinary conversation where a single word was replaced, a man is now sitting in pre-trial detention. With this approach, tomorrow they could lock up all independent media in our country, all activists, and everyone who dares to tell the truth. And that is a huge threat to freedom of speech in our country," she stressed.
Earlier, media outlets reported that Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, head of NABU’s interregional detective office who was detained by the SSU, was one of the key officials involved in documenting the activities of businessman and Kvartal 95 co-owner Tymur Mindich.
The SSU stated that one of the heads of NABU’s interregional detective offices, Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, was exposed for doing business with Russia.
Later, the Security Service of Ukraine denied that the detention and arrest of NABU officer Ruslan Mahamedrasulov were politically motivated.
On 16 September, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation announced a new suspicion against one of the heads of the NABU's interregional detective departments, who is currently in custody on suspicion of aiding the aggressor state.
