Opposition Bloc members post Hr 50 million bail for arrested lawmaker Dobkin

Opposition Bloc faction members have posted Hr 50 million (around $1.9 million) in bail for arrested lawmaker Mykhailo Dobkin, according to a Facebook post made on July 18 by former Party of Regions member Olena Bondarenko.

In her message, Bondarenko confirmed that Opposition Bloc co-chairman Borys Kolesnikov posted Hr 20 million ($771,600), while another Hr 30 million ($1.1 million) was previously contributed by Dobkin’s fellow faction member Vadim Novinsky.

The entire sum of Dobkin’s bail was posted two days before the deadline on July 20, according to a court statement.

As reported previously, Mykhailo Dobkin, a current member of parliament and former Kharkiv city mayor, is accused of abuse of power and fraud with land transactions. According to prosecutors, he attempted to seize a land parcel of 78 hectares valued at over Hr 220 million.

During the Euromaidan Revolution, Dobkin supported pro-Russian rallies in Kharkiv, and he fled to Russia for a short period after President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned office in February 2014.

He later returned, and won election to parliament in the October 2014 elections. He was third on the Opposition Bloc election list.

Following an address by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to parliament on July 13, lawmakers voted to strip Dobkin of his immunity from prosecution.

On July 15, Kyiv Pechersk court ordered Dobkin to be arrested for 60 days, with the alternative of posting Hr 150 million in bail. However, the amount was later reduced to Hr 50 million.

The arrested lawmaker previously claimed he was unable to collect the necessary sum of money, and said he expected Novinsky and Kolesnikov to post bail for him.

“(The bail) is posted by my partners, who have the financial wherewithal, and their money has been (properly) declared,” Dobkin told Ukrainian television’s 112 Channel late on July 18.

“The whole amount of money for the bail has undergone financial checks.”