The right of former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko to a defense in court is being violated, France's Human Rights Ambassador Francois Zimeray said on Thursday in an interview with reporters after attending a Kyiv Pechersky District Court hearing of Lutsenko case.
The wife of the ex-minister, Iryna Lutsenko, briefed the ambassador about the charges brought against her husband, his conditions in the detention centre, as well as Lutsenko’s state of health.
After listening to her and observing the court sitting, Zimeray said that "if there is a presumption of innocence, the person should be allowed to use it… I saw an innocent man in a cage."
"I can conclude that the right to a decent defense in this case is not being observed. I found myself wondering that if the judicial system allows such treatment of Mr. Lutsenko, former Prime Minister [Yulia] Tymoshenko, Mr. Ivaschenko (former acting Ukrainian Defense Minister Valeriy Ivaschenko), then what’s happening with those who cannot attract the public attention, the media," he said.
Zimeray conceded that not everything is perfect in France, and the country gets criticism from the European Court of Human Rights, but criticism from the outside allows the state to eliminate deficiencies.
The ambassador noted that Ukraine and the EU had been seeking ways to become closer for a long time.
"In the next few months, we expect to see the results of drawing closer, and respect for human rights is one of the criteria on which Ukraine’s drawing closer to the European Union is [assessed]," Zimeray said.
