The General Prosecutor's Office (GPU) released the co-chairman of the Leonid Chernovetsky faction in the Kyiv City Council, Denis Komarnitsky, on his own recognizance. As GPU press secretary Yuri Boychenko told Kommersant, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka signed the resolution to change the preventive measure on Saturday, May 14, and on the same day the deputy left the Kiev pre-trial detention center.

Let us remind you that Denis Komarnitsky was detained on April 8 in the building of the Kyiv City State Administration. On April 11, Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin announced that a criminal case had been opened against the deputy for participation in a robbery committed on August 2, 2005 against lawyer Ivan Grantsev by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 187 of the Criminal Code). The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv imposed a preventive measure on Mr. Komarnitsky in the form of detention for a period of 2 months. The second suspect in the case is the son-in-law of Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, Vyacheslav Suprunenko, who was put on the international wanted list by the Prosecutor General’s Office (see Kommersant on April 12).

Denis Komarnitsky's lawyer, Andrei Fedur, told Kommersant that the court's decision to take Komarnitsky into custody was "hasty and unfounded." “My client did not commit this crime. And there is no evidence confirming his involvement in what he is accused of. I am not sure whether there is a political component in this case. Rather, the lack of professionalism of individuals,” said Mr. Fedur. “I have repeatedly I applied for a mitigation of the preventive measure for the accused, so I consider the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office to be entirely justified. Apparently, when they began to look into it, it became obvious that his (Denis Komarnitsky - Kommersant) detention was simply pointless.”

Yesterday Denis Komarnitsky was absent from his workplace. “I haven’t seen Denis yet. I believe that after leaving the detention center he wants to spend some time with his family and children, to relax,” said Viktor Grinyuk, a deputy from Leonid Chernovetsky’s faction in the Kyiv City Council. Yulia Ryabchun

Denis Komarnitsky released from custody