1+1 employees attend a court hearing in Kolomoysky's case

Photo by RFE/RL

Employees of the TV channel "1+1" came to the Kyiv Court of Appeal to attend the hearing in the appeal against the arrest of the 1+1 Media owner, Ihor Kolomoysky, reports TSN.

Namely, the hearing was attended by TV presenter Natalia Moseychuk, TV presenter and actor Yuriy Horbunov and the former Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Courtroom correspondents report that the 1+1 representatives want to take Kolomoysky on bail.

According to Espreso correspondent Valeria Pashko, 1+1 presenter Alla Mazur is also present in the courtroom. According to Mazur, she, war correspondent Oleksandr Zahorodny and other journalists are going to take Kolomoysky on bail.

Presenter Natalya Mosiychuk told News Live that the group of those who are willing to take Kolomoysky on bail also includes the 1+1 Media board chair and CEO, Yaroslav Pokalchuk, the head of information, Serhiy Popov, and the sports journalist Ihor Tsyhanok.

The Center for Countering Disinformation listed the quotes by the 1+1 representatives describing Kolomoysky at the hearing.

"He has a sense for freedom and a sense for justice. Kolomoysky is perhaps the only one on the Forbes list who did not just talk loud, but acted," said the former 1+1 CEO, Oleksandr Tkachenko.

"Kolomoysky will not huddle up in a tartan blanket, will not pretend to be sick, will not bring a crowd of extras to the court building, will not blackmail the judicial system," noted 1+1 presenter Natalia Moseychuk.

"Kolomoysky is nearly the only person who always adhered to the rules of fair play and was never in favor of corruption in football," added TV host Ihor Tsyhanyk.

"Kolomoysky thwarted Putin's plans, supported the volunteer battalion while some other rich Ukrainian was calling to sound the alarm," noted 1+1 host Alla Mazur.

"Kolomoysky is a humble person, he does a lot of good, but he doesn't allow anyone to talk about it. The Almighty sees everything anyway," said the 1+1 Media CEO Yaroslav Pakholchuk.

It will be recalled that in early September the police notified the former beneficial owner of PrivatBank, Ihor Kolomoysky, of suspicion under two articles of the Criminal Code: "Fraud" (Article 190) and "Legalization of property obtained through criminal means" (Article 209). The court sentenced him to detention. Kolomoysky himself pleas not guilty.

Later, the businessman was charged under three more articles: illegal actions in respect of remittance documents, payment cards and other means providing access to bank accounts, and equipment for their production; taking possession of somebody else's property through abuse of office, committed by an organized group in respect of an especially gross amount; legalization of funds obtained through crime.