The transfer of the case against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko concerning the activities of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) Corporation to court within five days is illegal, Tymoshenko's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said.
"SBU [the Security Service of Ukraine] and the Prosecutor General’s Office are manipulating and falsifying. The transfer of the case to court is illegal and contradicts the Criminal Procedure Code," Vlasenko told Interfax-Ukraine on March 28.
According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the investigator has no right to limit the terms for readings the materials of the case for the accused and his or her defense team. Only court is entitled to do this if the investigator petitions for this and proves that the accused and the defense team are trying to delay the trial, Vlasenko said.
"The terms established by court refer only to Yulia Tymoshenko and defense lawyers Vlasenko and [Andriy] Kozhemiakin, but today there are two more defense lawyers in the UESU case – Yevhenia Tymoshenko and Oleksandr Plakhotniuk, who did not manage to read the materials of the case. No one restricted the terms for them. I don’t know whether the SBU addressed the court to limit terms for Yevhenia. I know that she saw photo copies of the case. Oleksandr Plakhotniuk was admitted to the UESU case as a defense lawyer only two days ago. What protraction are we talking about?" Vlasenko said.
As reported, on March 28 Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Blazhivsky said that the case against Tymoshenko concerning the activities of UESU Corporation will be sent to court within the next five days.
