You're reading: Kuchma says investigators giving him time to find second lawyer

Second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) has said that investigators have given him time to find another lawyer to replace Ihor Fomin, who has been denied the right to defend him.

"The investigators met my request. They have no grounds to reject my proposals. Today I am one lawyer short. And I have the right by law, by the constitution, to have another lawyer," the ex-president told journalists after visiting the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Kuchma suggested that his face-to-face meeting with the former officer from the Ukrainian State Security Guard Service, Mykola Melnychenko, is likely to happen after a second lawyer has been found.

"Not until we find a lawyer… The face-to-face meeting [will happen] around Monday," Kuchma said.

The ex-president stressed that he needed the second lawyer due to the large volume of materials of the criminal case instituted against him.

"And you do understand how many volumes have piled up over ten years. This is not [a book series by Alexandre ] Dumas. Therefore, not one lawyer but perhaps a group [of defenders], I think, have to work to examine all that has been written," Kuchma said.

Fomin announced on Wednesday that the Prosecutor General’s Office issued a resolution denying him the right to defend second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005). Earlier, Kuchma announced such intentions by the Prosecutor General’s Office and noted that thus he had been deprived of his right to a full defense.

Fomin also said that Kuchma had invited U.S. lawyer Alan Dershowitz to defend him.