The Pechersky district court in Kyiv on Nov. 22 will start hearings into a lawsuit by the former President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine against Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and the Prosecutor General’s Office to protect his honor, dignity, and business reputation.
According to information published on the court’s website, the hearings will start at 11.30 a.m. and Vita Bortnytska will preside as the judge.
The lawsuit was filed following Lutsenko’s address to the UN General Assembly on May 23 in which he stated that Yanukovych and some other people had embezzled over $40 billion, of which $1.5 billion was returned to the state budget of Ukraine.
“This was done on purpose and with a clear understanding that the information disseminated was not quite true. That information was also republished on the official website of the Prosecutor General’s Office and on Facebook,” Olha Prosyanyuk, managing partner at the Aver Lex lawyers’ union, who represents Yanukovych’s interests, said.
The lawsuit was received by the Pechersky district court on June 23. Preliminary hearings into the case took place on Sept. 13.
