KHARKIV – The court hearing the case against Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko concerning financial abuse within the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) corporation has said it needed time to decide on the prosecutor's petition for holding video conferences with the defendant during the hearing.
Judge Kostiantyn Sadovsky said that before taking a decision on this
matter, the court first needed to carefully study it, including the
technical possibility of such video conferencing, and to send relevant
queries to the head of Kharkiv Regional Appeals Court and to the chief
doctor of Central Clinical Hospital No.5 in Kharkiv.
The court scheduled its next sitting on the UESU case for August 14.
As reported, the state prosecutor lodged a petition on Tuesday, July 31,
requesting former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s
participation in court proceedings on UESU financial fraud case via a
video conference.
“We ask the court to suggest that defendant Tymoshenko express her
opinion regarding her participation in the trial via a video conference
in written form,” the state prosecutor said at a session of Kharkiv’s
Kyivsky District Court on Tuesday.
A defendant’s participation in court proceedings via a video link is
allowed by Ukrainian legislation and does not run counter to
international law, he said.
At the same time, Tymoshenko’s lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko read out a
statement confirming his client’s refusal to take part in the trial via a
video conference.
“I announce my disagreement with my participation in a video
conference,” Vlasenko quoted Tymoshenko as saying in her address to
Judge Sadovsky.
Article 185-3 of Ukraine’s Code of Criminal Procedure allows the use
of a video conference as part of individual procedural measures, but not
as a form of a person’s participation in court proceedings, according
to Tymoshenko’s statement.
The former prime minister said that her communication with the defense team would not be confidential during a video conference.
