"I will give up my mandate, but you will all be crying, as president said." How Tyshchenko defended himself in court
On Tuesday, the Pechersk District Court imposed a preventive measure on MP Mykola Tyshchenko, placing him under round-the-clock house arrest for two months.
The reason for this was that on 20 June, a group of unidentified men led by Tyshchenko attacked a former Kraken special forces soldier, Dmytro (Son) Pavlov, while he was walking with his child.
The regional police opened two criminal proceedings over the conflict in the centre of Dnipro. It was also established that a police officer from Kyiv, Bohdan Pysarenko, was involved in the dispute with an attempt to restrict a person's freedom.
So far, the police have identified all the participants in the clash, and on 24 June, prosecutors notified Tyshchenko of suspicion. In the morning, photos and leaked videos of the incident were already available on social media, which made it clear that Tyshchenko kept a large cache of currency at home. But also that he had destroyed his mobile phones so that investigators would not have access to them.
The court hearing to choose a preventive measure for the deputy was scheduled to begin in the afternoon. And the MP spent more than an hour in the judge's absence to talk freely to the press.
As a result, the journalists witnessed some kind of verbal delirium, during which they learned the number of toothpicks on Tyshchenko's desk and that each meme costs $150, that Tyshchenko is as good at fighting the call centre mafia as he was on the "Revizor" show. But we never heard the answer to the question of why he broke his phone and whether he had read the post about himself from the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak.
As you know, Tyshchenko is Yermak's godfather. And in recent years, journalists have had a strong impression that this is what allowed the MP to avoid responsibility for his activities.
It all started in 2020, when, at the height of the quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic, journalists found out that Tyshchenko's "Velour" restaurant continued to operate, serving businessmen, MPs, Kvartal residents and other VIP guests.
The media reported that afterwards, President Zelenskyy had a tough conversation with Tyshchenko. But apparently, it had little effect on the MP.
One quarantine violation was not enough, and in 2021, Tyshchenko's wife Alla Baranovska celebrated her birthday with a pomposity at the Fairmont Hotel, which is managed by Yelyzaveta Yurusheva.
However, the MP positioned himself as a loyal servant of Bankova Street, whose sins would be forgiven for his loyalty. In September 2021, Tyshchenko had a fight with Geo Leros in the Rada after the latter had once again attacked the president and his office.
With the start of the full-scale invasion, the Tyshchenko family moved to Uzhhorod and began to position themselves as organisers of charity events to raise aid for the military. The events were held in Prague and Paris, but no reports were submitted.
And then the MP got involved in a scandal when he went to meet with the Ukrainian community in Thailand.
That trip cost the deputy his seat in the "Servant of the People" faction. Not that it was very expensive. His colleague Aristov's trip to the Maldives cost him his entire mandate. But what can be taken away from a list member is not so easy to take away from a deputy.
Even now, even before the court's decision, the "Servant of the People" MPs agreed that "the Koli Kotleta has finally come to an end", but at the same time noted that their colleague was so "stupid** and unpredictable that he might not even guess to resign".
"I haven't heard anything special about him now, but I know that two years ago, in personal communication, Yermak repeatedly voiced what he wrote about publicly this weekend," said one of the deputies.
However, despite the fact that Tyshchenko did not have a roof over his office, this did not stop him from amazed people with his raids on forestry enterprises and call centres. A year ago, he had a public conflict with his colleague Seminsky over this.
In the spring, journalist Mykhailo Tkach published an investigation about the life of Tyshchenko's family in Zakarpattia, as well as about businesses that are obviously related to the MP but are not listed in his declaration.
In addition, Tkach's investigation was yet another confirmation of rumours that Tyshchenko's divorce from Baranovska was rather fictitious - we recall that just the following month, in March, Tyshchenko declared a gift of UAH 12.63 million from his ex-wife to save his property in case of criminal proceedings, which anonymous telegram channels periodically predicted for the MP.
Nevertheless, only the story with the military man became the red line after which Tyshchenko was finally slapped on the wrist.
According to a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, Tyshchenko and his associate Konstiantyn Tsuber, along with other unidentified persons wearing military uniforms without insignia, were in the city of Dnipro. "There, on Yavornytskyi Avenue, they were approached by Dmytro Mazokha, who is a victim in this criminal proceeding, and asked about the right of these persons to be armed in a public place. They refused to inform the latter... in connection with which a verbal conflict arose between the said persons and Mazokha," the prosecutor said.
"Subsequently, during a verbal conflict between the victim Mazokha and the suspect Tyshchenko, the intention to illegally deprive Mazokha of his liberty arose. Tyshchenko used the people who were with him to implement his criminal intent. Taking advantage of the fact that Tsuber and other unidentified persons were following his instructions, Tyshchenko ordered the latter to illegally deprive the victim Mazokha of his liberty," said a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office.
After that, Mazokha was surrounded and subjected to physical and psychological pressure.
According to the prosecutor, the victim, not understanding why he was being detained, called for help from passers-by, trying to escape from Tyshchenko and the people around him. This is exactly what millions of Ukrainians saw in the video, where the man clings to a baby carriage and is grabbed by men with guns.
The fight, according to law enforcement officers, lasted about 20 minutes. The victim was not allowed to move and was handcuffed. "In addition, they strangled the victim's neck," the prosecutor said.
The prosecutor stressed that the sanction for such a crime is up to 5 years in prison. Therefore, he asked the court for a round-the-clock arrest of the MP, pointing out that not all the defendants in the case have been identified yet (the news from the National Police came later) and Tyshchenko may try to influence the investigation and avoid punishment.
He recalled as a risk factor the fact that in numerous broadcasts Tyshchenko denied his guilt and tried to distort the facts. In addition, the prosecutor recalled that during the investigative actions at 2 Bolsunovska Street, Tyshchenko destroyed two of his mobile phones.
"The person, in the presence of me, witnesses and several operational cameras, destroyed these mobile phones - he did it boldly, rudely, there were even risks of damage to the property nearby and harm to the health of those present," the law enforcement officer said.
According to the prosecutor, after Tyshchenko smashed the phone against a stone table, he broke it almost in half, then twisted it and threw it on the floor.
At the same time, he did not respond to the investigator's remarks, but instead interrogated the witnesses.
Tyshchenko's lawyers decided to present the story as an act of aggression on the part of the victim (though they call him a victim according to Freud), who snatched the phone from Tyshchenko's assistant Eliona Andrievska (she has been working with Tyshchenko since the days of the restaurant business and is interesting because she justified Russian aggression, which is why she appeared in "Myrotvorets").
The lawyer also noted that the victim changed his testimony and did not mention this incident. According to him, at first the victim admitted that he had taken the assistant's phone.
"During the interrogation three days later, he avoided the question of whether he had taken the phone from the girl and simply said that the girl had filmed him on her phone, and then he decided to go in a different direction in order to avoid continuing the conflict. That is, the victim changed his testimony within three days," the lawyer noted.
At the same time, the lawyer argued that there were no signs of force on the victim, where he was seen on the cameras. In addition, the lawyer stated that the case did not have a proper identification protocol, and that the participants in the incident had not been identified. He was not interested in the fact that Ukrainians were able to identify some of the defendants in the case as the Cherkasy MP from the OPFL.
The lawyer actually accused law enforcement officers of "adjusting the materials of the proceedings" in order to "then create a stir around these events".
He denied that Tyshchenko could flee the country and that he could influence the experts. At the same time, he stated that unknown persons were threatening the MP and his assistant.
The second lawyer said that Tyshchenko's round-the-clock arrest "could paralyse the work of the parliament, because at some point there may be a lack of one vote".
Tyshchenko himself tried to make a dramatic performance out of his speech about how he was fighting against the call centres and no one was supporting him.
According to him, law enforcement officers ignore his appeals about the call centres - "they didn't even send him a single letter", so he was forced to go to the scene in Dnipro, where the "Nine" group and criminal authority Zhaba are behind the call centres.
"I had to go because the entire law enforcement system was under the group's thumb. It would be ridiculous if there were not 1,000 people there," the MP addressed the prosecutor.
"I am saying this to your face now. Not like you said to me yesterday, when you were changing your distance for fear that I would use force against you. Here, look, I'll show the journalists... how you were mocking me. And then... What did I tell you? Not to touch me? And what did you do? You pulled me by the shoulder. See? Pulling a people's deputy by the shoulder. Did I have a ruling at that time? No," Tyshchenko said to the prosecutor, actively showing journalists papers with black photographs where nothing could be seen.
The judge interrupted Tyshchenko and reminded him that a preventive measure was being considered.
After that, Tyshchenko finally switched to his version of the attack. According to him, after his successful raid, he was walking back down the boulevard and was met by three men who started insulting him and swearing at him.
- Are you laughing? Everyone finds it funny, we'll laugh later," Tyshchenko said, insulting the prosecutors.
- I reacted. I said: "Guys, you have a baby. Come through, because there are investigative actions going on here. You don't need to be here. And they all picked up their phones as if on command and started filming me and my assistant, thus bullying women. And then there was the abusive behaviour. Because they started to describe her, as they say. Then a policeman came out of the room and I asked him to pay attention, because there was an attack on the MP, and I was performing my official duties. That the investigative commission was working. And I want to tell you that on that day, we exposed and arrested 400 people, exposed 1,500 phone cards that were used to commit fraud. Next. He reprimands them, it's on the video. And after that, he (the victim shows the UBD). I say: oh, I made it. And he says to me: "I don't give a f**k that you did it".
According to Tyshchenko, the men were behaving defiantly. One of them did not even show any documents. The policeman expressed doubts about the photo of one of the men in the document. Then he called the TCR representatives.
- Representatives of the TCR came. I warn everyone about the filming. And then a man snatches a thing from my assistant, who is on duty. She is working, she weighs 48 kilograms. And then there are three young men and this little girl. He snatched the phone and it seemed to me that he wanted to run. Of course, I reacted. We all reacted together. And then the policeman and I unanimously said: we are calling the police. We are recording a fact, we are not hiding anything," Tyshchenko continued his illogical story.
According to the deputy, instead of arriving in 20 minutes, the police took an hour to arrive. "We did not see them. The young man, feeling that he was in some kind of trouble, started to move. A policeman tells him: the police will be here soon. The three of them kept moving. One of them did not introduce himself..... And I realise that if I leave, they will tear him (the policeman) apart. And so it happened," Tyshchenko explained.
According to him, after this incident, he received threats that his relatives would be raped in the forest and that he would be poured with acid, but law enforcement officers allegedly did not react to this.
The absurdity of the situation is that the evidence of this was allegedly in the very phones that Tyshchenko himself had broken. For some reason, by the end of the court hearing, there were three phones in his version, not two.
"I am writing a statement. They are writing to me. There were three phones. I don't have them anymore... in which I was threatened with murder, rape of my family, rape of my assistant. This is all in the protocol. Check this information. That's what you need to check, not some Dnipro TV channel. This is ridiculous. I'm sorry for being emotional, but I've had enough. I've been doing this for a year and a half. I've been fighting. And they say to me: "Oh, he runs around taking bribes". What bribes? You won't even have the opportunity to give a single penny to Mykola Tyshchenko. That's why I said yesterday: Leave me my money, because I will have nothing to live on. And it's not funny. I have been earning it for 30 years, with these hands, and I have not taken anything from anyone," Tyshchenko addressed the audience.
He also assured me that he would not run away and would not be able to leave.
"I have always coordinated all my actions with my superiors. Even in accordance with any of my movements, according to the law of Ukraine, I have to notify the head of the faction, the head of the parliament, the head of the committee. I do everything according to the law," Tyshchenko said.
"They promised to kill me in front of my house. Everyone knows where I live. I have never been in hiding... We just grew up in different systems. Since Soviet times, I've been used to fighting for my homeland... I will give up my mandate, but you will all be crying, as the president said," Tyshchenko assured.
An hour later, the judge placed him under house arrest.
Even after Tyshchenko's last statement, his colleagues are not sure that he will resign. The only thing that is clear is that this story will not end with the arrest of the odious MP.
Tetiana Nikolayenko, Censor.NET
