Former Minister, Yury Lutsenko kept in custody

On Thursday 21 April the Kyiv Court of Appeal remanded in custody for yet another month former Minister of Internal Affairs, Yury Lutsenko.

In so doing, the Court allowed the application of the Prosecutor General’s Office which claimed that the period of custody needed to be extended to 5 months.

The court justified its position by saying that despite the fact that Yury Lutsenko had finished familiarizing himself with the case material, this had still not been done by his lawyer and the other person accused, Leonid Prystuplyuk, Lutsenko’s former driver.

The court also took into account the Prosecutor General Office’s arguments that it had not had time to prepare the indictment document.

The court’s ruling is final and not subject to appeal.

The former minister was arrested on 26 December last year with the help of an SBU Special Forces Alfa unit when he left his home to walk the dog.

Yury Lutsenko is charged with abuse of position and causing losses to the State. He rejects the accusations and calls them politically motivated.  The political nature of the prosecutor has also been alleged by former Prime Minister and leader of BYuT, Yulia Tymoshenko, who was summoned for the latest interrogation to the Prosecutor General’s Office on Wednesday.

International human rights organizations, as well as Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the EU and the USA have expressed concern at the selective nature of Ukrainian justice. President Yanukovych’s Administration responds to such accusations by saying that it is waging a fight against corruption and points to arrests of officials from the new regime.

New information reported by UNIAN