You're reading: People’s Self-Defense: Lutsenko returned to Mena prison

Former Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko has been transported to the Mena Penal Colony (Chernihiv region), where he is serving his sentence, following the announcement of the verdict on his appeal by Kyiv Court of Appeals. 

“He was taken back to the colony after the hearing,” the press service of the People’s Self-Defense Party told Interfax-Ukraine.

It has not been announced yet whether Lutsenko is to attend a sitting to hear the full text of the court’s verdict on the appeal of the ex-minister and his defense team against the ruling of Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court on the criminal case on the investigation into alleged poisoning of third Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko.

Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court found Lutsenko guilty of a number of counts of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years in prison on Feb. 27, 2012. Lutsenko was charged with interfering in an investigative case concerning Valentyn Davydenko, the driver of former SBU First Deputy Chief Volodymyr Satsiuk, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko on Aug. 17, 2012 by Pechersky Court. The court sentenced Lutsenko to two years in prison.

Lutsenko’s defense team filed an appeal against the latter ruling. The ex-minister attended court hearings on the appeal. He was transferred to a Kyiv-based detention facility for the period of hearing.

On Nov. 22, Kyiv Court of Appeals announced its decision to uphold the ruling.