You're reading: Lutsenko believes Appeals Court planning to do away with him by May 17

Former Ukrainian interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko has said that those, who ordered a criminal case against him, have instructed the Appeals Court of Kyiv to pass a final sentence on him by May 17.

"The conductors of this political performance have set a task to do away with Lutsenko by May 17 (when the European Court of Human Rights is to pronounce a judgment on Lutsenko’s complaint)," he said on Tuesday during a meeting of the Appeals Court of Kyiv on his complaint against his four-year sentence passed by Pechersky District Court in Kyiv.

Lutsenko and his defense attorney filed a motion for disqualification of the presiding judge, Ivan Rybak, because the judge dismissed the defense team’s petition to send the case for repeat judicial enquiry.

The attorney and the defendant again said that Pechersky District Court in Kyiv read out testimony of 50 out of a total of 148 witnesses for the prosecution without announcing valid reasons for their failure to appear in court and didn’t hear testimonies of eleven witnesses for the defense.

The Appeals Court of Kyiv started hearing the complaint of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko against the verdict brought in by Pechersky District Court of Kyiv, which found the ex-minister guilty of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years in prison.