Lutsenko trial: More witnesses adamant that his actions were lawful

Three more witnesses in the second trial of Yury Lutsenko, former Interior Minister in Yulia Tymoshenko’s government about surveillance in the investigation of Yushchenko’s poisoning have stated in court that there was nothing unlawful about it. This follows the testimony by two Deputy Interior Ministers,   Petro Kolyada and Volodymyr Yevdokimov, at the previous hearing who also defended the actions.

Yury Lutsenko was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment in February over the first two charges brought against him.  The third charge was unexpectedly separated into a different trial late last year.  His conviction and the new trial have been widely condemned as politically motivated.

Lutsenko is accused of having organized the unlawful surveillance on Valentin Davydenko, driver of the former Deputy Head of the SBU [Security Service] Volodymyr Satsyuk. Yushchenko had been taken ill in 2004 after dining with SBU people at the dacha of the SBU Deputy Head.

On Tuesday, the former Deputy Head  of the Department of Operational and Technical Measures, Mykola Isachenko who took part in an internal inquiry regarding the legitimacy of the police actions, said that no infringements had been uncovered.

This view was upheld by Oleksandr Pidvalny, former Head of the third subdivision of the same Department who took part in a check of the grounds for carrying out investigative operations against the figures in the poisoning case.

The Prosecutor’s representative, Viktor Klymenko claimed he was happy with their testimony which he said is not refuting the factual aspects of the case.

The next hearing into the case is scheduled for 2 July.

New information reported by the BBC Ukrainian Service