The ex-attorneys of the former colonel of the country’s Armed Forces (AFU) Roman Chervinskiy, who was named by the US newspaper The Washington Post and Der Spiegel magazine as the coordinator of the undermining of the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2, have reported his disappearance from the pre-trial detention centre.
According to lawyer Kostantin Globa, on 19 April, Roman Chervinskiy’s detention in the pre-trial detention centre on charges of abuse of power came to an end. However, the court refused to consider his case and did not give the date of the next hearing, after which the defendant was taken to the detention centre again. Neither his wife nor his defenders were allowed to see Mr Chervinsky there, another of his lawyers, Andrey Iosipov, said.
“In a hurry from everyone closed the court and in a closed court, without participants in the process began to “falsify” quite illegal document, which will formally cover the kidnapping of Roman Chervinskiy, pursuing the goal of avoiding responsibility for such a kidnapping. Roman’s whereabouts are not known yet. The police, the court and other law enforcement agencies avoid providing any information about Roman’s whereabouts,” lawyer Konstantin Globa said.
Despite the absence of a court decision to extend the preventive measure, the article of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on the special regime of criminal proceedings under martial law stipulates that if it is impossible to hold a court session during the pre-trial investigation, the preventive measure in the form of detention is considered extended. Later, the court said that the hearing was postponed to 24 May 2024.
Chervinskiy’s former lawyers believe that he could have been kidnapped. Now nothing is known about the whereabouts of the former AFU officer.
Earlier, the US newspaper The Washington Post named Roman Chervinskiy as the coordinator of the attack on the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2. According to the newspaper, Colonel Roman Chervinskiy of the Special Operations Forces took part in a sabotage operation against Russian gas pipelines on 26 September 2022, obeying instructions from higher-ranking officials, eventually reporting to former AFU chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyy. The colonel himself in comments to WP through his lawyer denies his involvement in the sabotage.
