Present Minister’s driver registered in the same department for which Yury Lutsenko is being tried

On Monday the trial continued of Yury Lutsenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs and opposition leader who has been held in detention since December last year. One of the charges against him is over the employment of his driver Leonid Prystuplyuk within the MIA.

The court heard witness Vasyl Orban who in 2007 was and still remains the Head of the vehicle department of the MIA. He explained that drivers from his department do not have access to state secrets. He said that the Minister’s drivers continue to be employed by the Department of Investigative Operations (where Prystupllyuk was employed).

Mr Orban stressed that Lutsenko’s driver would not have been able to fulfil his functions properly without access to places classified as secret.  He stated that the SBU ]Security Service] had established special technical devices on the car of the former Minister of Internal Affairs. The Prosecutor Dmytro Loban asked whether Prystuplyuk could have used them. Orban answered that he didn’t know.

The prosecution asked the witness several times whether he had used both cars assigned to him or some other cars. At this point Yury Lutsenko stated that he’d had enough of listening to the prosecution’s fantasies, including about whether Prystuplyuk could have driven two cars at the same time, a plane or helicopter.