KYIV -- A court in Kyiv has refused to sanction the arrest of two top officials detained on corruption charges.
The Pechera District court in the Ukrainian capital ruled on March 27 that former Emergency Situations Service head Serhiy Bochkovskiy and his former deputy, Vasyl Stoyetskiy, will not be sent to pretrial detention due to "insufficient evidences of a crime."
On March 25, Ukrainian police interrupted a government session being broadcast live on television and detained Bochkovskiy and Stoyetskiy, leading them away in handcuffs.
The two were sacked from their posts the same day.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the two were being investigated on suspicion of corruption connected to offshore companies.
According to Ukrainian law, suspects might be kept in custody without a court's arrest order up to 72 hours, which means that Bochkovskiy and Stoyetskiy will most likely be released on March 28.
