KIEV, Feb. 5 – Police and prosecutors searched the home of Vasyl Onopenko, the head of the Supreme Court, as part of an ongoing investigation into a business loan taken out by his daughter in 2008, Ukrayinska Pravda reported Friday, citing a newswire report.

“Late last night [Thursday] at the private residence of the head of the Supreme Court the search was conducted,” Ukrayinska Pravda reported citing a Unian newswire report that quoted an unnamed person at the court.

“The prosecutor explained Onopenko the measure was conducted as part of the investigation of the case opened against his daughter Iryna Onopenko,” the report said.

The Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General’s Office were not available over the weekend to comment on the reported search.

But the Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed earlier Friday that the investigation against Iryna Onopenko was underway.

The case follows the arrest of Onopenko’s son-in-law, Yevhen Korniychuk, a former deputy justice minister in the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, who is now the leader of the largest opposition party in Ukraine.

Also on Thursday, the prosecutors searched the offices of Magisters & Partners, one of the largest law firms in Ukraine, effectively disrupting the company for 14 hours. Korniychuk is thought to have been affiliated with Magisters before joining the government of Tymoshenko.

“During six hours law enforcers have been holding up 50 lawyers and employees of the company,” Magisters said in a statement. “This is unacceptable according to legal, democratic and European principles of justice.”

Onopenko, long considered to be a close ally of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, was thought to have switched allegiance after the victory of Viktor Yanukovych as the president in February 2010.

But the pressure has been growing sharply on Onopenko to step down, perhaps underscoring little personal trust that Yanukovych has in him, analysts said. Onopenko refused to resign.

Yanukovych last year appointed his close family friend, Viktor Pshonka, as the Prosecutor General, while another family friend, Serhiy Arbuzov, was appointed as the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine in December 2010.

Yanukovych, in 2010, carried out a legal reform claiming that it had strengthened independence of courts. But even backers of the reform now say it had created courts that are more dependent on the government then ever before.

“Our legal system is destroyed,” Svyatoslav Oliynyk, a lawmaker who switched allegiance in the course of 2010 from Tymoshenko to Yanukovych, and now leads a small opposition party.

“We started the court system reform by seeking to strengthen the independence of courts,” Oliynyk said. “But after we did it, we had completely lost the independence of courts.”

The position of the head of the Supreme Court could eventually become instrumental in the battle for control of Parliament between pro-government and opposition parties in October 2012.

As Onopenko refused to step down, the pressure had increased on him. Korniychuk was arrested in December 2010 for alleged abuse of power in the former government. Korniychuk is married to Onopenko’s another daughter, Lada Onopenko.

The case opened against Iryna Onopenko apparently targets about $50,000 loan that she had allegedly borrowed in May 2008 from a small commercial bank, Bank Rehionalnoho Rozvytku, or BRR, which is now defunct.

Prosecutors allege the Iryna Onopenko has failed to return the money when it was due in December 2008.

“If she borrowed the money and for some reason has not returned it, then of course, it must be paid back,” Onopenko told Kommersant daily earlier this week.

“But if they opened the criminal case, then of course, there is a certain pressure on me,” Onopenko said. (tl/ez)