The State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine has received an official decision on the coming into effect of the sentence of former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, and a relevant commission will consider the issue of choosing a prison and the transfer of the convict there.
"I don’t know the date that the commission will hold a meeting… Today we received an official decision on the coming into legal effect of the sentence. There is a special procedure, [according to which] the commission has the grounds to hold a meeting to determine the regime and time of the transfer to the colony, and decide on the issue of preparation of documents for sending to the detention facility and to transfer him," assistance to the head of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine Ihor Andrushko told Interfax-Ukraine.
He added that another criminal case against Lutsenko is being investigated at the moment, due to which the commission may decide to transfer him or to leave him at the detention facility in Kyiv,
"There is still time for procedures, we have to wait. When the time for the procedures is over, a decision will be made," Andrushko said.
On February 27, 2012, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Lutsenko guilty of committing official crimes and sentenced him to four years in prison, with confiscation of his property.
The essence of the charges lies in the fact that Lutsenko, while serving as interior minister, allegedly facilitated the accrual of an illegal pension to his driver, Leonid Prystupliuk, the allocation of housing to him, as well as his inclusion in the operational services department.
The other charges concern the extension of an investigative case concerning the driver of former SBU First Deputy Chief Volodymyr Satsiuk, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko.
Lutsenko was detained on December 26, 2010.
