Ex-president , MP Petro Poroshenko / Photo from UNIAN

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has ruled that fifth president of Ukraine, Member of Parliament Petro Poroshenko must be brought to the premises of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) for questioning on June 10.

The court's ruling that authorizes compulsory interrogation of Poroshenko was passed on June 4, the SBI's press service said.

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He will be interrogated as a witness in a criminal case probing into the circumstances of the transfer of 43 paintings across the customs border of Ukraine in circumvention of customs control.

The interrogation is to begin at 11:00 Kyiv time on June 10, the address is 15 Symona Petliury Street, Kyiv.

On June 4, Poroshenko was expected to visit the SBI at 11:00 and 12:00. The first visit concerned the 43 paintings case, and the other one is related to the so-called "Biden call recordings" case.

It became known on May 22 that Poroshenko had urgently been summoned to the SBI for questioning as a witness on May 26 in a criminal proceeding probing into the transfer of 43 paintings across the customs border of Ukraine in circumvention of customs control. Poroshenko failed to appear for interrogation was he was present at Kyiv's Ivan Honchar Museum to open an exhibition of those paintings.

On the afternoon of May 26, SBI investigators arrived at the museum to conduct urgent investigative actions and search the museum's premises "in order to preserve the assets [paintings]." The director of the museum, Petro Honchar, said that the SBI agents had broken the entrance door of the premises and had not let him get into the building. He also added that Poroshenko had not commissioned the museum's administration to relocate the paintings that were on exhibit. The SBI officers conducted an inventory of the paintings from Poroshenko's collection and seized the originals of the related customs declarations.

On May 27, the SBI again summoned Poroshenko for questioning as a witness in the two cases scheduled for May 29, yet he did not appear. His lawyers said that the summons had been handed over to the ex-president improperly, so he had skipped the interrogation.