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Text of the ruling by the European Court for Human Rights on Lutsenko's arrest

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July 3, 2012, 3:05 p.m. | Op-ed — by Kyiv Post

Ukraine Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko
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Editor's note: the following is the July 3 decision of the European Court for Human Rights on the detention and arrest of Ukraine Former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, who was arrested on Dec. 26, 2010. Last February he was sentenced to four years in jail for abusing his authority as an interior minister in helping his driver to get different benefits and allocate an apartment at government's expense. Lutsenko said he is not guilty and called these charges a politically motivated attempt by Ukraine's leadership to sideline him from politics.
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The Kyiv Post is hosting comments to foster lively debate. Criticism is fine, but stick to the issues. Comments that include profanity or personal attacks will be removed from the site. If you think that a posted comment violates these standards, please flag it and alert us. We will take steps to block violators.
Volya July 3, 2012, 5:02 p.m.    

yanuconvict and his thieving banda regione care nothing for justice, only corruption and power

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bkrevel July 4, 2012, 6:13 a.m.    

yanuslimeovych/krook/konvict/idiot.......is a dictator......who does as he pleases......

Who is to blame......him ,,,,,,,,or ,,,,,,,,,us ???

If we don't change him,,,,,,,,he will continue his rape of Ukraine !

.

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Ukrtoday Ukraine July 4, 2012, 7:11 p.m.    

What's interesting is that this is a preliminary judgement on proceedings and not the substance of the allegations made against Lutsenko. Lutsenko's appeal rights within Ukraine are still pending and as such the ECHR can not address the substantive allegations. This is in effect. Warning shot across the bow. In many courts of law a serious flaw in th execution of justice would render the charges laid invalid. it is clear from this judgement that Lutsenko's rights have been denied, He should not have been detained during the pre trial conclusion.

It is unclear if the court can take the same approach to Tymoshenko's imprisonment as her detention was based on an act of contempt of court. The ECHR could consider the treatment dished out to Tymoshenko to be excessive and lacking merit or justification. It could also consider her actions during the trial to be in contempt of court. There are few western judges that would tolerate her behaviour in her trial. It is incumbent of Ukraine to ensure that Lutsenko's and Tymoshenko's appeal rights within Ukraine are considered and dealt with without delay.

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bernardh July 5, 2012, 10:37 a.m.    

There is no doubt the detention of Tymoshenko was also unjustified from a legal point of view. That she didn't rise in court, didn't address Kireev as "Your honor" and made disrepectful remarks about the trial and trial participants are not among the legal reasons for detention according to Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

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