Defense lawyers for Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych are turning to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of his in-absentia conviction after an appeals court in Kyiv rejected the defense appeal against a lower court ruling permitting a special (in-absentia) inquiry into the fugitive ex-president.
“Today the defense team received indisputable grounds for an urgent application to the ECHR in the case over high treason. This is being sufficiently evidenced by today’s unprecedented instance of the Appeals court refusing to begin considering a defense complaint against the Pechersky district court resolution in the special (in-absentia) investigation,” Yanukovych’s lawyer Vitaliy Serdiuk said.
He added that the Kyiv appeals court’s decision will serve as the main piece of evidence of “political pressure on the legal system in Ukraine” in this case.
