The court imposed on businessman Ihor Mazepa a preventive measure in the form of arrest with a possibility of bail

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv has imposed a pre-trial restraint on businessman and director of Concorde Capital investment company Igor Mazepa in the form of detention until February 27 with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 349 million 700 thousand. The prosecutor's office had requested arrest with bail of 700 million.

Source. This was reported by a Suspilne correspondent from the courtroom.

The defense in court insisted that the detention was illegal. They say there were no grounds for detention, and Mazepa did not cross the border to escape. As the lawyer pointed out, the businessman had previously left Ukraine and returned on time.

The defense also says that the detention report states that Mazepa was trying to avoid law enforcement. The lawyer said that the detention at the border was "a staged production to make Mazepa's departure abroad look like he was avoiding the pre-trial investigation body."

Instead, the prosecution said that, according to the investigation, Mazepa, having received information about criminal prosecution, decided to leave the country.

Earlier, on January 18, Ukrainian businessman and founder of the investment company Concorde Capital, Igor Mazepa, was detained at the Shehyni checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border. At the same time, the company was searched.

The State Bureau of Investigation stated that businessman Ihor Mazepa was the organizer of the scheme to alienate the land of the Kyiv HPP.

The press service of Concorde Capital said that Mazepa's detention was related to his public position on increasing pressure from law enforcement agencies on Ukrainian business owners.

"We are dealing with the biggest blow to Ukraine's investment market in the history of independence. Today, the founder of Concorde Capital, Igor Mazepa, was detained by the State Bureau of Investigation and the police. The security forces acted unlawfully and aggressively, committed all possible procedural violations during a series of searches: they did not allow lawyers to enter, seized all documents and personal funds of the company's employees indiscriminately, searched the company's office without a court order and broke down the doors. The company is already preparing an appeal to the government regarding the pressure on the company and the destruction of the investment climate in Ukraine by the security forces. This appeal is to be signed by the owners of hundreds of large budget-forming Ukrainian companies. "The issue of pressure on Igor Mazepa is starting to go far beyond the investigative actions initiated by law enforcement, as soon as Igor Mazepa was not afraid to declare to the whole country about the corruption of law enforcement agencies and the creation of an anti-rating of unscrupulous law enforcement officers," Concorde Capital said.

The company said that with the alleged losses of UAH 7 million, the prosecution is asking for bail of UAH 700 million for Mazepa and UAH 500 million for his brother.

"We note that the owner of the cottage community was detained, not any civil servant who allegedly allocated land illegally," Concorde Capital added.

The businessman himself commented on the three points in the case, rejecting the version of the "Russian trace" in his activities, saying that he had not allocated any land to anyone, and was outraged by the amount of bail requested by prosecutors.

"To the point. First, there is no "Russian trace" in this case, except for some Russian words that I heard during my detention. But that is on their conscience.

Second, the suspicion concerns the allocation of a certain land plot of 2.4 hectares. Someone there has calculated that this transaction caused damage to the state by 7 million hryvnias. They say it was allocated in violation of the law. It's not clear why they came to me, because I have not allocated any state land to anyone. I have not received an answer to the question whether those who allocated the land have been detained.

Third, prosecutors are asking for a bail of UAH 700 million as a preventive measure for me. Not UAH 700, not UAH 700 thousand, but UAH 700 million. And another UAH 500 million for my brother. That is, at least UAH 1.2 billion for a case where the alleged losses amount to UAH 7 million," Mazepa wrote on Facebook.

Background. Earlier it became known that the court had imposed a pre-trial restraint on two defendants in the case of illegal seizure of land at Kyiv HPP, in which Ihor Mazepa and his brother Yuriy were also detained.