Law enforcement has gathered evidence against lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky under suspicion that he helped a man leave Ukraine illegally, the State Bureau of Investigation reported on Nov. 3.
Investigators believe that the MP ensured that the brother of his civil partner could leave Ukraine "to a neighboring European country."
Dubinsky is thought to have entered the man's information into a governmental system that allows men to leave under the condition that they are transporting humanitarian aid or medical supplies and will return to Ukraine.
Law enforcement seized letters, contracts and other documents that were used to enter false information into the system, as well as flash drives and mobile phones as evidence, the State Bureau of Investigation said.
Media reports emerged on Nov. 1 that investigators were carrying out searches at his property over his suspected involvement in organizing an illegal border crossing.
The crime of illegally transportation someone across the border carries a punishment of up to 7 years in prison.
The MP was already declared a suspect of another crime in August, namely falsifying official documents in a case related to his own travel abroad.
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.
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's Servant of the People party in 2021 for "violating the statute and disobeying the party's governing bodies."
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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