• Topics / Politics and human rights
• Topics / The right to a fair trial
Lutsenko trial: new speed record in questioning witnesses
On Thursday the court heard up to the 74th witness in the trial of former Minister of Internal Affairs, Yury Lutsenko, this making half of the witnesses in total.
The last was Svitlana Yermolenko from the Institute of Ukrainian Language, who had been asked about the meaning of certain words. She said she couldn’t remember them all, but that she had been asked for the difference between “ceremonial” and “festive”. The defence objected since Ms Yermolenko had been called as a witness not an expert, however this was passed over by presiding judge Serhiy Vovk.
Lutsenko then said that if this witness were questioned as an expert, then they should prepare the television screen and show her the event itself so that she could give her option what ceremonious is, and what festive.
Ms Yarmolenko explained that she had only assessed the words, using a dictionary, not the events.