The former deputies of ex-Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko have collected the necessary amount, which he must pay as compensation for the damage caused during the celebration of the Police Day in Kyiv’s Ukraine Art Palace in 2008-2009.
"Yesterday, we collected the necessary amount and forwarded the copies of payment documents to the Court of Appeal, the Prosecutor General’s Office and lawyers," former First Deputy Interior Minister, Police Colonel General Volodymyr Yevdokymov, told Interfax-Ukraine.
He noted that he was not ready to name an exact number of police officers who responded to the initiative to raise funds for the ex-minister to compensate for the damage caused as a result of the allegedly illegal celebration of the Police Day.
As reported, Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court found Lutsenko guilty of official crimes, sentenced him to four years in prison and banned him from holding public posts for three years.
The court then passed a three-year suspended sentence on Lutsenko’s driver, Leonid Prystupliuk, with the confiscation of his property. The court also put a travel ban on Prystupliuk and stripped him of his police rank.
In addition, the court also ordered the recovery of Hr 293,000 from Lutsenko and Prystupliuk, and Hr 643,000 from the ex-minister alone.
Lutsenko will have to serve two years and ten months in prison on top of the year and two months that the ex-minister has already spent in the pre-trial detention centre.
Lutsenko was detained on December 26, 2010. The ex-minister was charged with committing crimes under Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code (misappropriation of property on a large scale through abuse of office, with preliminary collusion with a group of individuals) and Part 3, Article 365 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power that entailed grave consequences).
The Prosecutor General’s Office also accused the former interior minister of misusing budget funds that were allocated for the celebration of Police Day at the Ukraine National Arts Palace in 2008-2009.
Kyiv’s Court of Appeals will consider an appeal against the Pechersky District Court verdict in the Lutsenko case on May 15.
