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Law enforcers illegally spy on oppositionists without relevant permissive documents, according to the head of the central election headquarters of the Batkivschyna United Opposition, Oleksandr Turchynov.

“The cynicism is in the fact that today law enforcers are holding the so-called operational activities, I mean bugging and shadowing of oppositionists without any court rulings or other written permissive documents,” Turchynov said following the announcement of the sentence in a criminal case against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, according to the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.

The politician also described Lutsenko’s sentence to two years in prison in the criminal case on the poisoning of Third Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko as “very dirty farce.”

He added that the authorities “used” Yuschenko to put the ex-minister behind bars.

When asked what they were discussing with Lutsenko during the court hearing, Turchynov said: “We were discussing the election campaign. Yuriy is holding active political agitation in the detention facility, and we can feel serious support of our candidate No. 5 on the party list.”