Kyiv Court of Appeals has started hearing an appeal by former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko against his two-year prison sentence in the criminal case on the illegal surveillance over the driver of a former SBU official.
Lutsenko, his defense lawyers, opposition lawmakers, and observers
from the European Parliament – ex-president of Poland Aleksander
Kwasniewski and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox –
are present in the courtroom.
Journalists were not allowed into the courtroom. They are watching
live streaming video of the sitting in the court’s assembly hall.
As reported, on February 27, 2012 Pechersky District Court in Kyiv
found Lutsenko guilty of committing a number of abuse-of-office crimes
and sentenced him to four years in prison. In addition, on August 17,
2012, Pechersky District Court found the ex-minister guilty of
negligence in extending the surveillance of Valentyn Davydenko, the
ex-driver of former Deputy Chief of the Security Service of Ukraine
(SBU) Volodymyr Satsiuk, and sentenced him to two years in prison.
On August 31, 2012, the ex-minister was transferred to the Mena penal colony in Chernihiv region.
