Another criminal case has been opened against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko regarding the misuse of funds allocated for the celebration of the Police Day at the Ukraina Palace, Lutsenko's lawyer Ihor Fomin has told Interfax-Ukraine.
"Another criminal case has been opened. It concerns the celebration of Police Day," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.
Fomin said that he currently had no copy of the decision to open the case against Lutsenko, and therefore he could not say what exactly Lutsenko has been charged with.
As reported, on Dec. 13, 2010, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine completed a pre-trial investigation on charges brought against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and his driver Leonid Prystupliuk of the embezzlement of budgetary funds. It reported that that Lutsenko had been charged under part 3, Article 365 (the abuse of office) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On Dec. 26, Lutsenko was detained near his house. On Dec. 27, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv ordered him to be jailed for two months due to the fact that "the accused did not come to the investigator, grossly violating the demands envisaged by a travel ban."
On Dec. 29, Lutsenko was taken to the central investigation department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, where charges were brought against him in a case on the poisoning of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko.
Fomin said later that the criminal cases on the poisoning of Yuschenko and on the embezzlement of budgetary funds by Lutsenko had been united into one criminal case.
