The defense team of UKROP Party leader Hennadiy Korban has argued that the court hearing of a petition by the prosecutor's office to change a pre-trial restriction measure for their client from house arrest to custody was conducted with the violation of human rights.
Korban’s defense counsel Oleksandr Miroshnyk noted that the actions by the court, the prosecution and law enforcement agencies against their client caused a surge of indignation and condemnation among defense lawyers, the UKROP press service reported.
The defense team argue that numerous violations of human rights laid down in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms were recorded during the last court hearing in the Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv, which lasted nearly 30 hours. According to them, Korban was nearly tortured through forcibly moving him from the hospital to the court after he underwent surgical intervention, their client did not receive appropriate medical care during the trial, he was unable to take prescribed medications and even food. In addition, the defendant was not hospitalized though doctors insisted on this, the defense team said.
The defense lawyers were not given enough time to read the documents, the judge constantly interrupted the lawyers and announced breaks, which were unreasonably long. The access of the UKROP Party leader to medical care was artificially restricted and his life was repeatedly threatened, the defense team said.
According to them, all these facts need to get a legal evaluation by the international community, and certainly will be presented to the European Court of Human Rights.
As reported, Korban, a former deputy head of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Administration, who recently ran in the mayoral elections in Kyiv, was detained during a sweeping special operation aimed at eradicating a criminal ring on Oct. 31.
Korban was later notified of being suspected of ‘setting up and participating in a criminal organization’, ‘obstructing elections commissions’ activities’ (implying misappropriation of a large amount of money belonging to the Country Defense Foundation charity organization),’illegally gaining possession of a transport vehicle’ and ‘taking hostage a government official’ (implying an incident in which the chairman of the Ukrainian State Land Agency and the director of a Dnipropetrovsk city council department were taken hostage in Dnipropetrovsk). Korban was placed under house arrest until Dec. 31.
On Dec. 28, the Dniprovsky District Court of Kyiv ruled to change the pre-trial restriction measure for UKROP Party Leader Hennadiy Korban from house arrest to custody for a period of 60 days. The court sitting on this matter lasted for several days. The participants of the heating spent over 30 hours in court.
On Jan.5, the Appeals Court of Kyiv will consider the appeal by Korban’s defense team against the ruling of Dnipropetrocsk District Court.
