You're reading: Lutsenko calls on court to free him to end national ‘disgrace’

Ukraine’s ex-top cop Yuriy Lutsenko demanded that Ukrainian judges free him from prison and close the criminal case against him. He expressed confidence that, if they did not, he would win an appeal in the European Court for Human Rights, which will bring to a new disgrace for the country. 

The Higher
Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases opened on April 2 an
appeal hearing by Lutsenko, who was contesting the decision of Kyiv Pechersk
District Court in 2012 that sentenced him to four years for number of crimes,
including exceeding authority while serving as a minister.

The
prosecution claimed that Lutsenko abused his power helping his driver Leonid Prystupliuk
to receive a service apartment, and also embezzled state funds organizing
Police Day celebrations in Kyiv. Lutsenko denies all the charges, saying that
his case was “tritely imagined by the detectives of prosecution general by
political demands.”

Lutsenko
has already won one case in the European Court for Human Rights that ordered
Ukraine to pay him 15,000 euros of compensation after deciding that Lutsenko’s imprisonment
was politically motivated.

“I wouldn’t
like Ukraine to be slapped in the face again just like it was with decision of European
Court about the illegal imprisonment of Lutsenko in jail,” Lutsenko said during
the court hearing. “If I am not released, on the next day I will file an appeal
(to the European Court of Human Rights), and I’m 100 percent sure that the
court’s decision will be in my favor,” he added, saying his case must be closed.

His wife
Iryna Lutsenko, who was also present in the courtroom, said her husband
acquired several health problems while being in custody, including hepatitis, which he has been infected by staying in Lukianovsky notoriously
known Kyiv-based detention center. So she demanded to release him over grave
condition of his health. “Extension of his imprisonment may lead to his
disability,” she said.

Lutsenko’s wife Iryna demands the judges of Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases to release her husband over his poor health.

But it
looked as if the panel of three judges wasn’t sympathetic to the ex-interior
minister. Journalists were not allowed to come into the courtroom and had to
observe the trial by videoconference.

Chief judge
Serhiy Slynko interrupted Lutsenko in mid-sentence and called a break in the court
hearing until April 3. Lutsenko asked to be allowed to finish his speech, since
he’s spent 2.5 years in prison already.

Kyiv
Post staff writer IOksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]