You're reading: Highest court keeps Lutsenko in jail (UPDATED)

High Specialized Court of Ukraine upheld former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko's earlier sentence of four years in prison, and reduced the sum of damages he was due to pay by near $4,000 (from Hr 643,000 to Hr 609,000).

Lutsenko has one year and nine months left to serve, according
to his wife Iryna, who said she took the court’s decision with “Homeric laughter.”

“After today’s decision all off the circuses should be
closed as no circus could be compared to what we have in our Ukrainian courts,”
she told the Kyiv Post.

The verdict casts further doubts over Ukraine’s
prospect of signing an association agreement with the European Union this
November. The release of Lutsenko from prison was one of the preconditions to
signing, along with numerous other steps in economy, battling corruption and
improvements in the legal system.

The Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and
Criminal Cases opened an appeal hearing by Lutsenko on April 2. He was
contesting the decision of Kyiv Pechersk District Court in 2012 that sentenced
him to four years for number of crimes, including exceeding authority while
serving as a minister.

Iryna Lutsenko communicates to her husband through glass cell in letters. Hearing by the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases on April 2.

The prosecution claimed that Lutsenko abused his power
helping his driver Leonid Prystupliuk to receive a service apartment, and also
embezzled state funds organizing Police Day celebrations in Kyiv. Lutsenko
denied all the charges, and called to take an “objective decision” before the
judges went to the council room on April 3.

“And if it is objective, it would definitely have to
be not guilty,” he said.

Prosecutor Mykola Kurapov said that Lutsenko
guilt “was proven” and that it’s the first time ever that “a
person of such a caliber” has to pay for their crimes. “I believe the
decision is legal and reasonable,” he added.

Iryna Lutsenko explained that in its decision the
Higher court only fixed the error made by judges of Kyiv Pechersk Court, who
obliged Lutsenko to pay extra sum of fine. “What is Hr 40,000 (for the judges)
when President Viktor Yanukovych worth Ukraine Hr 1.5 million per day?” she
said.       

Iryna Lutsenko announced that the verdict will be
challenged in the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). Lutsenko has already
won one case in ECHR that ordered Ukraine to pay him 15,000 euros of
compensation after deciding that Lutsenko’s imprisonment was politically
motivated.

Lutsenko received his monetary compensation earlier
this year, but the authorities made no other moves to restore his rights, as
ordered by ECHR. President Viktor Yanukovych said he would look into Lutsenko’s
case once all court options are exhausted.

The High Specialized Court of Ukraine is the last
Ukrainian jurisdiction where Lutsenko’s case could be appealed.

The actual hearing was ugly. Journalists were not
allowed into the court room, and had to watch a live broadcast of the hearing
in a separate room. A plain clothed law enforcer was filming the proceedings in
the court room on April 2, though.

Lutsenko argued with judges during the two days of
trial, called the prosecutor “a liar” and the court “a joke.”

The court did not allow him to deliver the final
speech before withdrawing to the council room. “Your honor, the last word? This
is not a court, this is a disgrace,” Lutsenko said.

Iryna Lutsenko said the court did not want to hear his
political views. However, the new Criminal Procedural Code does not envision
the final address by the defendant during a cassation hearing.

Lutsenko’s lawyer Igor Fomin said he didn’t expect any
positive decision of this court. “The decision has been made not in the
courtroom but in other cabinets, where the representatives neither of defense
nor of prosecution were present,” he said.

Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at
[email protected] and
Kyiv Post editor Katya Gorchinskaya can be reached at 
[email protected].