The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the State Bureau of Investigation searched the home of an MP who went abroad for medical treatment under the guise of accompanying his father. The MP in question is Oleksandr Dubinskyy, sources in law enforcement confirmed to LB.ua.
The SBU press service said that the investigation is checking the circumstances and legality of the MP's departure during martial law. According to the investigation, he left Ukraine under the guise of accompanying his father for treatment abroad.
"At the same time, the MP's father travelled abroad and came back on his own, without actually being accompanied by the MP. In addition, law-enforcement officers are investigating the facts that the MP signed official documents during his stay outside Ukraine, which may indicate that they were forged," the SBU added.
The SBI noted that the MP's father had returned to Ukraine much earlier than the MP did. And the MP, while abroad, was able to sign and send official documents, including to government agencies, which may indicate that they were forged.
To clarify all these circumstances and provide a legal assessment of the MP's actions, investigative actions are ongoing within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Article 366 Part 1 (forgery in office), Article 362 Part 3 (unauthorised actions with information processed in automated systems committed by a person who has the right to access it by prior conspiracy by a group of persons).
These provide for a sentence of up to six years with disqualification to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years.
Recently, well-known activist and soldier Anton Shvets found out that Dubinskyy had received permission from the Ministry of Health to travel abroad, allegedly to accompany his cancer-sick father for treatment. The permit was valid from the end of June until 10 July, but as of 25 July, Shvets assumed, the MP was not in Ukraine. The MP's girlfriend posted photos from Spain with a man with a distinctive tattoo on his leg, similar to Dubinskyy's, on 26 July.
Dubinskyy confirmed that he had travelled abroad, but only after Shvets published the information about his trip on 25 July.
Dubinskyy is under US and Ukrainian sanctions. He is accused, along with former MP Andriy Derkach, a suspect in a treason case, of interfering in the 2020 US presidential election with the note that he is "part of a Russian-linked foreign influence network".
Prior to his election as an MP in 2019 (Servant of the People, constituency 94), Dubinskyy had been a long-time presenter and creative producer on tycoon Ihor Kolomoyskyy's TV channels.
In 2019, the MP became the subject of an investigation by Bihus.info journalists. They learnt that over the past few years, Dubinskyy and his family have acquired a total of 24 apartments, 17 cars, two houses and 1.7 acres of land for a total of about $2.5 million.
According to Detector Media, Dubinskyy has repeatedly spread false and manipulative information.
He was expelled from the pro-presidential Servant of the People faction. According to the Chesno Movement, Dubinskyy missed 60% of parliament sessions from the beginning of 2022 to May 2023. In 2023, he stated that churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate were being "persecuted" in Ukraine. In 2022, he did not sign an appeal to parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk to put on the agenda the legislative initiatives to strip mandates from MPs and local council members who were elected from banned pro-Russian parties.