President Yushchenko instructs Prosecutor General to investigate the incident at the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv

The head of the Presidential Secretariat’s Press Service Oleh Koshelev stated on Thursday evening that Deputies from the Party of the Regions had occupied the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv and State Deputy Serhiy Kivalov had taken away the court’s main stamp.

The acting head of the district court Inna Otrosh spoke also of pressure being put on the court. She said that the former head of the court Volodymyr Kolesnichenko and State Deputy Serhiy Kivalov had gained entry through force to her office, grabbed the stamp and stamped some papers. She said also that Kolesnichenko had assaulted her (female) assistant.

Meanwhile Deputy from the Party of the Regions Yury Miroshnychenko asserts that the Pechersky District Court has reinstated Kolesnichenko as head. “Mr Kolesnichenko, who received the stamp and keys by court ruling, accordingly set about fulfilling his duties as head of the court. On the other hand, there is the assertion by an assistant to the acting head of the court that she supposedly suffered when the stamp was taken by force”.

The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Moroz instructed Serhiy Kivalov himself, as head of the Committee on the Justice System, as well as the heads of some other parliamentary committees, to investigate the situation.

President Yushchenko on the other hand has instructed Oleksandr Medvedko, Prosecutor General to look into the incident at the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv. He stated today that the incident had been an attempt to remove this court from the legal process.

The President cancelled his Decree appointing Kolesnichenko head of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv on 30 March this year, and on the same day appointed Inna Otrosh acting head.

On Thursday evening the same Serhiy Kivalov stated that the Verkhovna Rada would also dismiss judges of the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv if the High Council of Justice decided that these judges had passed “unlawful rulings”.

On 3 April the Pechersky District Court suspended the force of the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada which cancelled the previous make up of the Central Election Commission, headed by Yaroslav Davydovych and reinstated the former makeup headed by Serhiy Kivalov.

Kivalov, who is also a member of the High Court of Justice, was its head until February 2004 when he became head of the Central Election Commission.

He was dismissed from the latter post in December 2004 after the Supreme Court of Ukraine declared unlawful the actions of the same Central Election Commission under Kivalov’s leadership in presenting “results” of the presidential elections which gave the victory to Viktor Yanukovych.