The head of the country’s most popular opposition party, according to polls, claims the case against him is a sham. Earlier this year, another opposition leader, Viktor Medvedchuk, was placed under house arrest on similar charges.
The former president’s arrest was allowed with the possibility of bail set at 1 billion hryvnias ($36.7 million), Ukrinform news agency reported on Friday, citing the Prosecutor General’s office of Ukraine. It quoted a Kiev court as saying that Poroshenko could be detained and brought before a judge, who will decide whether to keep him in pre-trial detention.