Ukrainian Lawmaker To Appeal $4 Million Bail Amount In Embezzlement Case

A Ukrainian member of parliament stripped of his immunity on suspicion of embezzlement has said he will appeal a court decision over the weekend that set bail at $4 million.

Speaking to local Hromadske TV, Yaroslav Dubnevych said he didn't know where to find the money in the five-day time frame he was given on November 2 to procure the money.

"In the absence of any evidence, I consider the court's decision unfounded, so we are preparing an appeal. The fight for justice continues!" Dubnevych said in a Facebook post.

Prosecutors, whose motion to have the lawmaker remanded in custody was rejected, haven't said whether they will appeal the High Anti-Corruption Court's ruling.

However, Vitaliy Ponomarenko, a prosecutor at the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, has said that a motion will be filed to have Dubnevych put in pretrial detention if he doesn't post bail in time.

The lawmaker has also been ordered to report any address or employment changes to the authorities and refrain from speaking to witnesses in the criminal case against him. Dubnevych, meanwhile, must wear a monitoring device and had to surrender his passport and other travel documents to the authorities.

Dubnevych, a member of the Za Maybutnye (For the Future) group of lawmakers that political analysts say is affiliated with billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskiy, is suspected of siphoning $3.75 million from the state-run railway company Ukrzaliznytsya.

Parliament on October 31 voted to strip him of immunity and arrest him.

Specifically, Dubnevych allegedly lobbied to have money allocated from the railway company to firms that he controls for procurement orders that led to financial losses at Ukrzaliznytsya.

He denies the allegations as political populism.

He is a three-term lawmaker and previously in 2014 became a member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc in parliament, named after the former president.

With reporting by Hromadske TV