Kyiv Pechersky Court orders pretrial detention for Ihor Pavlovsky who was a Ukraine’s deputy defence minister in 2015-2019 setting his bail at  record 475 million hryvnas.

The former top military official is one of the four suspects  facing charges over supplies  of defective military equipment to Ukraine’s Army, says State Bureau of Investigations in a statement on Facebook.

Rostyslav Kravets, Ihor Pavlovsky’s lawyer, called the court ruling ‘political persecution’.

‘Just as everybody expected, the court granted the prosecutors their request… rejecting a bail on appeal from [men who have a status of] Heroes of Ukraine, Ukrainian MPs’, said the lawyer.

While the defendant’s appeal can be still reconsidered, in late July, Pavlovsky’s  lawyers are set to file a complaint with European Court of Human Rights.

‘A full ext of the verdict is coming.. on July 15. Even if we are filing the appeal today, the court is going to be able to consider it no earlier than July 18. This is why we are simultaneously putting together the documents and the complaint to ECHR in connection to persecution of our client’.

State Bureau of Investigations alleges that Pavlovsky along with the general manager  of ‘Kuznya na Rybalskom’ plant and two top Defence Ministry official were behind the defense contracts that led to supplies of ‘low-quality’ military equipment to the Ukrainian Army.  According to SBI claims the contracted combat boats and military ambulance lorries failed to meet the specififications ‘causing the country damage amounting to 475 million hryvnas’.