You're reading: Court allows Lutsenko to undergo medical examination

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court has satisfied a petition lodged by the defense team of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to conduct another medical examination of the defendant.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that the presiding judge, Serhiy Vovk, had announced a respective decision at a court session on Monday. Lutsenko will be examined by the same doctors who examined him before.

In their petition, Lutsenko’s lawyers said that the ex-minister, who currently remains in jail, was constantly complaining of stomach pains, had lost 26 kilograms and had not gained any weight for nearly three months.

Representatives of the prosecution did not object to this request.

At the same time, the court rejected Lutsenko’s petition to summon as a witness investigator Serhiy Voichenko, who led the investigation team on his case.

The defendant demanded that the investigator be summoned to court, explaining this by the need to find out "why the transcripts of the questioning of victims in his case in the Prosecutor General’s Office do not coincide with the explanations they provided in court, and why the investigator dictated their statements to them."

Vovk said that the question of summoning the investigator as a witness was premature, but it could be considered at a later stage of the trial.

In addition, Lutsenko said that one of the victims, Yuriy Narizhny, who said that he could not appear in court because of a serious illness, was moving freely in Kyiv and was seen in the central office of the Interior Ministry.

The court has currently begun to question witnesses, and their number from the prosecution is 148.

As reported, Lutsenko has been held in jail since December 26, 2010. Kyiv Court of Appeals on April 21 extended Lutsenko’s arrest until May 26, and after that he announced his intention to go on hunger strike from April 22.

On May 10, Lutsenko was transferred from the medical unit of the pretrial detention center to an emergency hospital to conduct a medical examination.

On May 23, Lutsenko filed an official written statement announcing the end of his hunger strike starting from May 24.