You're reading: Court considering petition to release Lutsenko from custody

Kyiv's Pechersky District Court, in a criminal case against former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, has retired to the deliberation room to decide on a petition lodged by the defendant to change the measure of restraint against him.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that Lutsenko had filed a respective petition at a court session on Thursday.

Lutsenko said that it was in the court’s competence to take such a decision, fending off the arguments by representatives of the state prosecution that the court has no authority to verify the legitimacy of choosing the measure of restraint, since this has already been made by Kyiv’s Court of Appeals and there are no new circumstances to release the defendant from custody.

Lutsenko said that "millions of Ukrainian citizens," including 65 MPs, and members of the European Parliament were ready to stand bail for him. He said that MPs Arseniy Yatseniuk and Oleksandr Tretyakov were ready to put up bail for him.

In addition, Lutsenko said that a statement he made on the legality of his arrest, which has been filed at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), is at the final stage of consideration.

In this regard, Lutsenko proposed that judges think about the responsibility they may bear if the ECHR takes a positive decision in the case.

He also described as unprecedented in Ukrainian legislation the decision to arrest former Ukrainian Premier and Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko due to the fact that she "was allegedly rude in court."

"If the court finds the courage to take a legal decision on my petition, it will also be moral support for Tymoshenko," he said.