Kyiv Pechersky District Court has separated the criminal proceedings against two defendants in the criminal case against Ukraine's former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko - former employees of the operational service department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, Oleh Pavlenov and Volodymyr Tarasenko - into a separate case.
Judge Serhiy Vovk, who is presiding over Lutsenko’s trial, announced this decision on Thursday.
The court noted that since doctors concluded that Pavlenov needs at least 20 days of medical treatment, this creates an obstacle to the hearing. Thus, the court decided to separate the criminal case against Pavlenov and Tarasenko (under Article 364 of the Criminal Code – abuse of power or official authority) from Lutsenko’s case.
The defendants, Tarasenko and Pavlenov, were unable to attend the court session on Thursday due to their being ill.
