You're reading: Ukrainian MP Dobkin considers search attempt at his Kharkiv home as pressure on opposition

Ukrainian parliamentary and the Opposition Bloc Party's Kharkiv region organization chairman Mykhailo Dobkin called an attempt to conduct a search at his house in Kharkiv pressure on the opposition, the party's website said on Sept. 15.

“Pressure is constantly put on the people’s deputies from the opposition and today’s visit of law enforcement officials to me is one of the same series of events. The alleged case on the violations during the period when I served as a Kharkiv mayor is being investigated. I am confident, if everything is done in accordance with law, then that the Prosecutor General’s Office has not a single chance to prove my guilt. All the cases are seven-eight years old; they have been checked multiple times. […] It is none other than politics,” he said.

He also said that the search, which law enforcement officials attempted to conduct at his house, is related to the case registered back in 2014, however, no investigative measures were taken in two years.

He also accused Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko of a lack of professionalism. Lutsenko said that law enforcement officials went to conduct the search at a house of Dobkin’s mother and he allegedly arrived and interfered with the search. “This is completely wrong. They arrived to conduct search at my house, at the address of my permanent residence, and my mother was never registered and never lived here,” he said.

He said that Prosecutor General’s Office could not fail to be aware that he lives there, not his mother, and this search could not be conducted from the start. “The Prosecutor General’s Office has been aware of my registration here for a very long time. It considered the situation with the attack on my house upon my request, and it was stated in the documents that the house belongs to me and my family. It means that an investigative judge was misled on purpose, otherwise such an order would not be signed, because it is contrary to law,” he said.

Dobkin said that the officials of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrived at his house with an order to conduct the search around 07.30 a.m., however, they could not implement it completely. “I showed them the documents confirming that I live here, and then they could not conduct the search, because a special procedure is required for that. But I offered to hand over the documents of interest myself, if such are in the house. This has been done. All documents were registered in a protocol, and I have a copy of it. All investigative activities are concluded at the moment,” he said.

He said that the investigators behaved politely, within the limits of law, and no conflict situation emerged.

He said he is convinced that the search attempt was necessary to create a news topic for the media and the social networks. “Now the media will discuss it for a long time and the Prosecutor General’s Office will consider me a villain without charge or trial,” he said.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General said on Sept. 15 morning that the searches took place at the premises belonging to the Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes and Dobkin’s mother.

He said that the searches were conducted as part of a criminal investigation into plotting the theft of 654 ha of Kharkiv’s land in the amount of Hr 4 billion.