You're reading: Prosecutor: Criminal case against Kuchma will not be dropped

A criminal case against former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma will not be dropped and will be forwarded to courts after the investigation is completed, First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin said on Inter television channel early on Saturday.

"A court that will hear this criminal case will make a final judgment. That is, the case against Kuchma will not be halted at the investigation stage," Kuzmin said when asked how a recent Constitutional Court ruling on acceptability of proofs obtained unlawfully in opening criminal cases could influence the investigation against Kuchma.

The criminal investigation against Kuchma was initiated not only based on audio records made by former bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, Kuzmin said. "There are also testimony by witnesses and [results of] expert studies," he added.

A court is entitled to reject any proofs presented by the investigation if it can motivate this, he said.

"Therefore, no matter what the Constitutional Court had ruled, a court hearing the case against Kuchma could have rejected any proofs presented by prosecutors anyway," he said.

The investigation under the said criminal case has been completed, and the case is currently being analyzed by the defense team, after which the prosecutors plan to forward it to a court, Kuzmin said.