If found guilty of treason charges after a one-month absence in Ukraine, the lawmaker faces up to 15 years in prison.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was released from Kyiv Pechersk District Court on Jan. 17 after a nearly 12-hour bail hearing on treason charges.

After nearly five hours of deliberation by Judge Oleksiy Sokolov, a court secretary emerged to announce that the ruling would be announced at 2 p.m. Kyiv time on Jan. 19.

The allegations are denied by Poroshenko, who appointed the justice in 2017. Neither he nor his defense team filed a motion for Sokolov’s recusal during the bail hearing, and neither did the judge.

The fifth president of post-Soviet Ukraine, 56, claims the case against him is fabricated and has urged his political opponent, President Volodymyr Zelensky, to do more for defence and unity as Russia threatens to invade the country again.

Mazi Akachukwu Udoka, Obinwannem News writer / Jan 18, 2022