Andriy has no problems with his hearing

The Pechersky District Court in Kyiv has found unlawful the criminal investigation launched against former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Andriy Kozhemyakin who was accused of unlawful wiretapping of correspondent  from the newspaper “Sevodnya” [“Today”) Oleksandr Korchynsky.

The Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) which Mr Kozhemyakin is a member of told our correspondent that they would demand that the Prosecutor General make a public apology to the State Deputy.

Yesterday the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv allowed the claim of the former SBU deputy head, now State Deputy Andriy Kozhemyakin (BYuT) and found the actions of the Prosecutor General in launching a criminal investigation against “Sevodnya” correspondent, Oleksandr Korchynsky unlawful. Our correspondent was told this by the head of the BYuT legal department, State Deputy Andriy Portnov. “In April a criminal investigation was launched which was then reclassified as an investigation regarding Kozhemyakin. The court ruling found the resolution to launch a criminal investigation unlawful and cancelled it”, he explained.

The SBU began recording journalist Oleksandr Korchynsky’s telephone conversations after the publication of his article about the former head of the department of foreign surveillance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleksiy Lukach suspected of organizing the Georgy Gongadze’s murder being in Israel. In April this year the criminal investigation against Andriy Kozhemyakin over unlawful wiretapping of the journalist was initiated. However Mr. Kozhemyakin’s lawyers lodged an appeal against this in the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv. As the head of the BYuT legal department, Andriy Portnov previously informed our correspondents, “a warrant from the Kyiv Appeal Court was received” for the wiretapping. Representatives of the Prosecutor General were twice unable to provide the judges with the material of the criminal case explaining this as being because the documents had been requested for checking. On 8 June the Prosecutor General’s representatives demanded the removal of judge Angela Ctryzhevska who had permitted lawyers of Andriy Kozhemyakin without access to state secrets to take part in the proceedings.

Andriy Portnov told our correspondent that Mr Kozhemyakin’s lawyers intended to demand an official apology from the Prosecutor General. “We will now grab them by the arm and force them to apologize to Kozhemyakin”, he promised. The prosecutor’s office were relaxed about the pronouncement that the decision to launch the criminal investigation had been unlawful. “All future actions by the Prosecutor General will comply with current legislation”, the head of the Prosecutor General’s press service Oleksiy Bebel told the newspaper. At the same time he stated that the court ruling was not sufficient grounds for carrying out an internal inquiry over the investigators whose actions the court declared unlawful.