Odesa Court Frees Lawyer Olha Panchenko on ₴64,000 Bail in

The Odesa Court of Appeal changed the decision on the measure of restraint for lawyer Olha Panchenko, who is suspected of participating in the activities of an illegal armed group organized by a group of people, from custody to bail.

This was reported by Vadym Semenov, Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Advocates of the Bar Council of Odesa Region.

According to him, the court set bail at UAH 64 thousand.

"Today Olga Panchenko will be free," he said.

Earlier, the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa explained that it chose custody as a measure of restraint for lawyer Olga Panchenko, and not something else, because the prosecutor was able to prove the existence of risks provided for in Article 177 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

We are talking about the possibility of

• hide from the pre-trial investigation or court;
• destroy, conceal or distort any of the things or documents that are essential for establishing the circumstances of the criminal offense
• unlawfully influence a victim, witness, other suspect, accused, expert, or specialist in the same criminal proceedings
• otherwise obstruct criminal proceedings;
• commit another criminal offense or continue the criminal offense of which he/she is suspected or accused.

The lawyer was detained on April 17 during a search of her apartment, and a 7.62×39 rifled carbine "FORT 205" assembled on the basis of an AKM assault rifle and four magazines for it were seized. Some of the other members of the group are already cooperating with the investigation and have given incriminating evidence against the suspect.

Earlier, Odesa media workers called on the head of the Odesa branch of the National Union of Journalists, Yuriy Rabotin, to resign and accused him of passing their personal data to Oleg Maltsev, who is accused of creating a combat group to overthrow the government. They reported that they were "concerned about the information about the conflict situation" and condemned the "dissemination of personal data".

Subsequently, Yuriy Rabotin issued a public statement in response to the journalists' accusations, and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine suspended the issuance of journalists' certificates through its Odesa regional organization.

Кирило Бойко