The Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Criminal and Administrative Cases will consider an appeal by former Ukrainian acting defense minister Valeriy Ivaschenko against his sentence on January 15, 2013.
“We were informed that the hearing of the appeal is scheduled for
January 15,” Ivaschenko’s defense lawyer Borys Nechyporenko told
Interfax-Ukraine on Sunday.
The appeal will be considered by a panel of judges of the Higher Specialized Court.
As reported, Kyiv’s Pechersky District Court sentenced Ivaschenko to
five years in prison on April 12, 2012, banning him at the same time
from occupying government and administrative positions for three years.
Ivaschenko’s pretrial detention since August 21, 2010 has been counted
toward the prison term set by the court.
While serving as an acting defense minister in November 2009,
Ivaschenko signed a financial recovery plan for the Feodosia Ship and
Mechanical Plant drawn up by a former head of the plant’s financial
recovery procedures. The document envisioned the sale of government
property, including three berths, a bomb shelter, and a building for the
storage of mobilization reserves.
On August 14, the Court of Appeals in Kyiv replaced the five-year
imprisonment for Ivaschenko with a suspended sentence with a one-year
probation period.
Ivaschenko’s defense lawyer Nechyporenko said that the defense would
appeal against the ruling by the appellate court as it believed the
defendant was not guilty. The court’s decision to hand down a suspended
sentence was a partial victory, the lawyer said.
