Kyiv's Pechersky District Court started announcing a verdict against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko. TV channels have been banned from broadcasting the announcement of a verdict against Yuriy Lutsenko.
The presiding judge, Serhiy Vovk, is reading out the sentence.
Several dozen supporters of the People’s Self-Defense and Batkivschyna parties are chanting "Freedom to Yura!" outside the courthouse.
Most journalists were not able to enter the courtroom, as it is very small.
An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that according to journalists and operators of television channels, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv had banned the broadcasting of the verdict. Lutsenko was arrested in December 2010 on charges that he gave illegal bonuses and perks to his driver at the expense of the state. Prosecutors asked the court to find him guilty and send him to jail.
Prosecutors accuse Lutsenko of abusing his authority by spending some $37,500 in state budget money to celebrate Police Day in 2008 and 2009. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim there was no loss to the state because the funds largely went to state-owned concert hall Palats Ukraina.
According to a third charge, Lutsenko exceeded authority by arranging for the allocation of a one-room apartment for his driver, Leonid Prystupliuk, and illegally promoting the driver to qualify him for a larger pension. Lutsenko’s lawyers claim that only one out of dozens of witnesses upheld this claim.
The U.S. and the European Union have condemned Lutsenko’s trial and the imprisonment of Tymoshenko as politically motivated. Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of abuse of office.
President Viktor Yanukovych says the government is fighting corruption.
