Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv has satisfied the claim filed by defense lawyers in the case of gas theft of PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia (the so-called Onyshchenko gas case) about sending a request to the Kyiv Court of Appeal to determine the jurisdiction of the case.
Lawyer Kyryl Antonov told Interfax-Ukraine that he had submitted a motion, which is supported by all the defense lawyers, about changing the court, which will review the merits of the case – from Solomiansky to the Shevchenkivsky Kyiv court.
“All the actions that are incriminated in this case are connected with the company Ukrgazvydobuvannia, which is located in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv. Thus, we believe that it is expedient to consider this case in that court,” Antonov said.
The lawyer also said that, according to the law, if the investigative department of the NABU, which is located in a certain territory, is investigating a case, it can not be tried in a court that is on the same territory.
Antonov said that on August 11 the full text of this decision of the Solomiansky court would be announced, after which it will be sent to the Court of Appeal of Kyiv, which will have to determine the panel of judges and set a date for consideration of this issue.
In December 2015 detectives of the NABU began the pretrial investigation of the embezzlement of funds during the production and sale of natural gas under contracts of joint activity of Ukrgazvydobuvannia, as a result of which the state suffered losses amounting to about Hr 3 billion. The investigation established a possible involvement in the commission of crimes of 27 persons.
The case concerning eight participants of the ‘gas scheme’ was sent to Solomiansky district court of Kyiv on May 30. One of the participants of the criminal organization, the person involved in the gas theft case of PJSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia, Valeriy Postny, was assigned the role of an organizer in the criminal organization.
