Lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky said via social networks on Aug. 9 that he has been declared a suspect of the falsification of official documents in a case related to his recent travel abroad.
The MP is being investigated for a vacation abroad during wartime, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and State Bureau of Investigation announced on Aug. 3.
The authorities believe he traveled under the pretext of accompanying his father for medical treatment outside of Ukraine. However, Dubinsky's father went abroad without him and returned to Ukraine before the lawmaker.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, his trip became public when a Health Ministry document requesting his permission to travel was leaked. He was supposed to return by July 10, but at the end of July he was featured in an Instagram post by his girlfriend who was on holiday in Barcelona.
Dubinsky allegedly spent several weeks on holiday in Italy, Croatia, and Spain in July.
The forgery charge relates to how the MP "was able to sign and send official documents" during his stay abroad. The evidence of Dubinsky not being in Ukraine on the days the documents were signed "may indicate their forgery," the Bureau said.
On Aug. 5, the Bureau searched the office of Volodymyr Kolodyuk, the lawmaker's assistant, according to media reports.
The MP said the charges were politically motivated and that the authorities were "cynically interfering in the personal life of my family."
Dubinsky is an independent MP. He was removed from President Volodymyr Zelensky Servant of the People party in 2021 for "violating the statute and disobeying the party's governing bodies."
Anna Myroniuk
(Updated: )
