A criminal case against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko was sent to the Pechersky Court of Kyiv on Tuesday for consideration in essence, the media liaisons office of the Prosecutor General's Office has reported.
According to the office, Prosecutor of Kyiv Anatoliy Melnyk visited Lutsenko in the hospital on Tuesday.
"According to the prosecutor, [Lutsenko has] no complaints about his doctors or conditions of confinement," the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.
As reported, Lutsenko has been held in jail since December 26, 2010. He has been charged under Part 5, Article 191 (large-scale embezzlement of state property through the abuse of office, under a preliminary collusion by a group of individuals), Part 3, Article 365 (abuse of office, which led to grave consequences), and Part 3, Article 364 (the abuse of power and office by a law enforcer, which caused damage to citizens’ rights as protected by the law) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
On January 28, the pre-trail investigation into the criminal case against Lutsenko and three more former officials of the ministry evaluated the losses caused by them to the state at over UAH 970,000.
Kyiv Court of Appeals on April 22 extended Lutsenko’s arrest until May 26, and after that he announced his intention to go on hunger strike from April 22.
On April 28, the former minister, in a letter to leadership of Kyiv pretrial detention center, declared his intention to go on hunger strike. At present Lutsenko is in the Kyiv city clinical emergency hospital, where he was transferred from the medical unit of the pretrial detention center.
Head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret, Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Liubomyr Huzar, culture activists, and ordinary Ukrainians who send their letters to the People’s Self-Defense party have already asked Lutsenko to stop hunger strike.
In addition, former Ukrainian Premier and leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko also called on the former minister to stop his hunger strike.
According to the wife of the ex-minister, Iryna Lutsenko, doctors "categorically asked" her to persuade her husband to stop his hunger strike, "otherwise there will not be able to save him."
