Yesterday, the Holosiivskyi District Court considered a motion to extend the pretrial investigation period in the case involving the overseas business trips of the chief of staff of the Kyiv City State Administration—Dmytro Zagumennyi—to six months.

Our opponents have become entangled in their own abuses and fabrications and want to delay bringing the case to court for as long as possible. Obviously, we are not satisfied with this state of affairs, and we categorically objected to the extension.

Our position was as follows:

On December 29, 2025, another investigating judge of the Holosiivskyi District Court had already considered a motion to extend the deadlines by two months, but found it unfounded and gave the prosecution one month to complete the investigation. The prosecutors decided to circumvent this by artificially splitting the case and approaching another investigating judge to extend the deadlines in a new criminal proceeding.

When requesting an extension of the investigation period, the investigator must justify what actions require additional time and explain why these actions could not have been completed earlier. In his motion, the investigator merely stated in a very perfunctory manner why he needed the additional time, completely ignoring the second requirement.

Contrary to official statements by the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office that the investigation is not interested in whether our client attended international conferences during his business trips, the investigator asserts the need to conduct investigative actions aimed specifically at clarifying these very circumstances.

The investigator explicitly states that the prosecution is demanding that the defense provide the original electronic storage device containing the evidence seized by the defense attorneys for examination. This constitutes a gross violation of D.M. Zagumenny’s right to a defense and an interference in the defense attorneys’ work, to which we will not fail to respond appropriately.

Despite all the arguments presented, the court granted the motion to extend the investigation period to 6 months.

At the same time, it is already clear that these additional two months will not be a walk in the park for the prosecution.

The defense continues to fight for justice. The defense in this case is being handled by Barristers partner Yuri Radzievsky.