The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv has refused to allow MP Hennadiy Moskal to act as a lawyer for former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.
Judge Serhiy Vovk said that a respective petition had been rejected as premature.
Lutsenko’s lawyer Oleksiy Bahanets did not attend the court session on Monday.
Lutsenko asked the court not to continue the consideration of a criminal case against him without Bahanets, but Judge Vovk refused to do so, reminding the defendant of his right to replace his lawyer.
After that, Lutsenko filed a petition to allow a new lawyer to act on his behalf in the case.
Ihor Balyk, a defense lawyer for Yuriy Lutsenko, has again asked the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv to release his client from custody.
A lawyer had filed such a petition due to the fact that Lutsenko had been in custody for seven months without any legal grounds.
The court is currently discussing the petition. Lutsenko and his driver Leonid Prystupliuk were charged with the misappropriation of Hr 360,000 in state property and fraud on Dec. 13, 2010.
The former interior minister, who is currently being held in a detention facility, was detained near his home on Dec. 26, 2010.
On Dec. 27, a court ordered his arrest on the grounds that he had been dodging questioning in violation of his written pledge not to leave Kyiv.
The state prosecutor’s office charged ex-interior minister with abuse of office, saying he had embezzled state funds.
Lutsenko has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
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