You're reading: Kharkiv-based court has no right to consider UESU case, says Vlasenko

The defense team of former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko is planning to file a supplement to a lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the lawfulness of the criminal case on the activities of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation, the ex-premier's defense lawyer and a member of the BYT-Batkivschyna parliamentary faction, Serhiy Vlasenko, has said.

"This court [Kyivsky District Court of Kharkiv] has no right to consider this case [against Tymoshenko]," Vlasenko told reporters on Monday near the Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv.

He also said that the Ukrainian legislation does not envisage alternative judicial cognizance. According to Vlasenko, the Ukrainian legislation allows criminal cases to be considered only in the region where the crime was committed.

"All of allegedly illegal actions were committed in Dnipropetrovsk, in that case, why is a Kharkiv-based court hearing the case? I don’t understand this," he said.

Vlasenko also said that there exists a procedure of transferring a case from one court to another, which was violated with the UESU case.

"They made some kind of symbiosis. They addressed the chairman of the Higher Specialized Court to determine [Tymoshenko’s] judicial cognizance. But there is no such a procedure," the MP said.

"Then they used another procedure not foreseen by the legislation of Ukraine. The chairman of the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine wrote: I assign the competence to Kharkiv region and charge the head of Kharkiv Court of Appeals to choose a court that will consider this case. But this procedure does not exist at all. I am thanking them for this, as today the case is being considered by a court that is not entitled to this under the legislation and this is an obvious reason for applying for the European Court of Human Rights to confirm that this is illegal," Vlasenko said.