There are no grounds to change the measure of restraint against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General's Office has said.
While speaking in parliament on Friday, Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoliy Pryshko said: "This question is exclusively in the competence of the investigator, who is a procedurally independent person, and of the courts. This question should be resolved by the investigator and the courts. The investigator, when I was preparing for my speech in the Verkhovna Rada, told me that there were currently no reasons to change the measure of restraint against Lutsenko."
He said that once a criminal case opened against Lutsenko is submitted to courts, "the courts will be obliged to consider the issue of the measure of restraint."
Pryshko also recalled that Lutsenko’s detention had been extended until May 26.
Under the law, it is in the competence of the investigator to change the measure of restraint, i.e. from arrest to travel restrictions. A court gives consent to the election of a measure of restraint in the form of arrest.
As reported, Lutsenko has been held in jail since December 26, 2010. He has been charged under Part 5, Article 191 (large-scale embezzlement of state property through the abuse of office, under a preliminary collusion by a group of individuals), Part 3, Article 365 (abuse of office, which led to grave consequences), and Part 3, Article 364 (the abuse of power and office by a law enforcer, which caused damage to citizens’ rights as protected by the law) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On January 28, the pre-trail investigation into the criminal case against Lutsenko and three more former officials of the ministry evaluated the losses caused by them to the state at over UAH 970,000.
Kyiv Court of Appeals on April 21 extended Lutsenko’s arrest until May 26, and after that he announced his intention to go on hunger strike from April 22.
On May 10, the investigator the Prosecutor General’s Office allowed a medical examination of Lutsenko in hospital.
