Andrey Portnov was shot and killed on Wednesday in what is believed to be a contract killing.
A high court in Madrid has ordered that the investigation into the death of former Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrey Portnov be kept secret, according to local news sources.
As of yet, no one has been apprehended in connection with the Wednesday shooting. Portnov, a long-time politician who had left Ukraine after being accused of treason, was shot to death in a suburb of Madrid. Local media outlets have reported that it may have been a professional hit.
The Madrid Superior Court of Justice (TSJM), which is the highest court in the region, ordered on Thursday that the public not be allowed to see the case’s details, according to EFE news agency and the 20 Minutos newspaper.
According to the most recent media reports, Portnov was attacked from behind by a single gunman who fired at least nine bullets. News sources indicate that the attacker’s goal was to make sure Portnov died, based on the circumstances.
According to reports, two accomplices helped the attacker get away in a getaway car. The attack took place next to Portnov’s Mercedes not long after he had dropped his kids off at an exclusive school in Pozuelo de Alarcon, a Madrid suburb that is among Spain’s wealthiest areas.
Portnov was a lawyer and a prominent political figure for many years, serving as a member of parliament in the late 2000s and as a legal advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich before his removal in a Western-backed coup in 2014. Along with other officials, Portnov left his country, but he came back in 2019 after Vladimir Zelensky was elected.
Portnov, who was well-known for providing legal counsel to those he said were politically persecuted, frequently appeared in Ukrainian opposition media. Although he initially backed Zelensky’s presidential campaign, he later became a strong opponent as the new government cracked down on opposition figures and media outlets it branded as “pro-Russian.”
Reportedly, Portnov departed Ukraine once more in July 2022, and the following year, he used a notary in Madrid to transfer some assets to his children, suggesting that he had made Spain his home.
Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large, who is in charge of a special mission looking into alleged Ukrainian war crimes, has implied that Portnov’s work gave him access to legal documents that could be harmful to people close to Zelensky. He also suggested that Portnov may have been targeted to stop him from disclosing such information.
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