(Reuters) – Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is under investigation for possible treason, has been allowed to leave Ukraine at a border crossing with Poland to attend a political meeting, local media and his allies said on Monday.
Poroshenko is being probed in connection with the financing of Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country through illegal coal sales in 2014-15. He denies any wrongdoing.
In January, a Ukrainian judge rejected a prosecutor’s request to have Poroshenko arrested in connection with the case, which the latter says has been cooked up by his political opponents.
Poroshenko, who was previously stopped from leaving the country twice, was heading to a meeting of the European People’s Party in Rotterdam, the newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda said, citing sources at law enforcement agencies.
Viktoria Siumar, a lawyer from Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party, also confirmed in her Facebook post that the former president had left for the meeting abroad.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; Writing by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
