Zhevaho declares his readiness to testify in case of Bank Finance and Credit in France.

Businessman and ex-deputy Kostiantyn Zhevaho, who is awaiting a hearing in a French court on January 19 on a request for his extradition to Ukraine in the case of embezzlement of $113 million from Finance and Credit Bank, calls on the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) and the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) to take from him testimonies in the case in France.

"I hope and appeal again so that they listen to me and take evidence from me," Zhevaho said on Wednesday in an interview with the Espresso TV channel, whose beneficiary is his son.

The businessman claims that the PGO and the State Bureau of Investigation have previously refused his requests to testify in the case outside Ukraine 15 times.

Zhevaho said that what is happening brings him "a lot of PR negativity, a lot of business negativity, because people do not understand whether I am to blame or not in this case… I would like to bring this case either to closure or to consideration in court, but neither the prosecutor's office nor the State Bureau of Investigations are interested in this," the ex-deputy said.

In his opinion, what is happening has a political connotation and is beneficial to the Office of the President, "so they have a program that they are trying to sell deoligarchization to Ukrainians and voters."

"They called me an oligarch, although I am not an oligarch. I am a big, well-known and successful entrepreneur… I have built companies that successfully operate both in Europe and in the United States," Zhevaho said, adding that he and his companies provided defense and humanitarian assistance for UAH 1 billion.

He claims that the Office of the President "distributes commands to both the prosecutor's office and the State Bureau of Investigations and has influence on the Pechersky court," which the ex-deputy compared with the Basmanny court in Moscow and other "custom courts that exist in other dictatorships." At the same time, the businessman said that he trusted the Ukrainian Supreme Court.

The businessman added that another reason is the interest to "clean up" some of his assets in Ukraine, which are being seized on the proposal of the State Bureau of Investigations, but did not specify who exactly he suspects of this.

During the interview, the host of Espresso demonstrated the position of the Kharkiv human rights group, which spoke out against the extradition of Zhevaho to Ukraine, including as dangerous for his life and health. "The Russian troops are carrying out punitive practices against businessmen and politicians in the occupied territories, using torture and inhuman treatment against them. In the event of the seizure of the territory where Zhevaho will be imprisoned, he will not be able to leave it, since he will be in a pretrial detention center, which means he will not be able to resist the illegal actions of the Russians. In addition, the constant Russian missile attacks interfere with effective justice and could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, which Mr. Zhevaho will not be able to avoid due to the inability to travel to another locality while in custody," the group said in its statement.

Zhevaho predicted that any decision of the French court on his extradition would be appealed, so the process would continue for several more months.

The SBI accuses Zhevaho and a number of top managers of the bankrupt Finance and Credit bank of organizing a mechanism for embezzlement of $113 million, which caused damage to the interests of the state and the bank's depositors.

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