You're reading: Supreme Court’s head Onopenko: Yanukovych had no influence on law enforcers in cases against my relatives

Head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Vasyl Onopenko has said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych didn't influence the law enforcement agencies during the investigation into cases against his relatives.

"I believe that the president had no influence. As far as I know, he tries not to influence these processes," Onopenko told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.

At the same time, the head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine said that most likely the president was not properly informed about these issues.

On the whole, speaking about his talks with the head of state, Onopenko noted that 90% of information which he reported to the president concerned legal proceedings and the work of the Supreme Court.

According to him, the issues regarding the family of Onopenko were discussed at the end of the talk.

"Some 10% of the talk with the president concerned the organization of work of the Supreme Court, most part of which was dedicated to the draft law on judicial system," Onopenko said.

As reported, on February 15, a criminal case against Iryna Onopenko, a daughter of the chairman of the Supreme Court, and her ex-husband Volodymyr Kotliarov, concerning a fraudulent seizure of funds in foreign currency involving a sum of $2.4 million was closed.

Yevhen Korniychuk, Onopenko’s son-in-law, was detained on December 24. On December 30, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv ordered Korniychuk to be taken into custody for two months as a pre-trial restriction, and then he was transferred to a Kyiv pre-trial detention center. On February 15, the investigator changed the pre-trial restrictions on Korniychuk, from arrest to a written undertaking not to leave Kyiv. Charges were brought against Korniychuk under part three of Article 365 (abuse of office, which entailed grave consequences).