Still in courts over election, Lutsenko might get another term for negligence
While the opposition is fighting in courts to get its leaders running for parliament in the Oct. 28 election on the United Opposition ticket, one of them – Yuriy Lutsenko – might get another conviction as early as this week.
The Pechersk district
court of Kyiv will announce its verdict on Aug. 17 in the case where
former Interior Minister is accused of negligence. The prosecutors
claimed during the Aug. 10 hearing that Lutsenko displayed
professional negligence when extending surveillance while
investigating the 2004 poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, who served as
president in 2005-2010.
The prosecutors claimed
that Lutsenko deserves a 2.5-year prison sentence for the alleged
crime. Lutsenko himself said the case was “a political vendetta”
while speaking in court.
Last
month, the European Court for Human Rights ruled that Lutsenko’s
arrest was political persecution and ordered Ukraine to pay a
compensation of 15,000 euro.
Lutsenko was sentenced to
four years in prison this February by the same court for embezzlement
and abuse of office in a trial he calls political. Last month, he was
included in the United Opposition’s party list to run for parliament
this fall, along with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko,
currently also in prison for abuse of office.
The Central Election
Commission refused to register both as candidates last week, claiming
that the Constitution bans anyone with a conviction from serving in
parliament. The opposition is battling the decision in courts,
arguing that registration of convicted people is still permitted by
law.
The opposition only has
the High Court left to rule on registration, though. The law gives
the highest court three days to decide on the case, according to
Oleksandr Turchynov, one of the leaders of the opposition. He intends
to file the appeal on Aug. 13.
In the meantime, the Aug.
10 hearing of Lutsenko’s negligence case looked more like a show,
according to numerous media reports. “If you want to have a
show-style hearing, you will get a worthy partner in my person,”
Lutsenko was quoted by his party’s website as telling the judge.
Lutsenko’s defense claims that there was not a single
witness who could testify to prove negligence.
“The court has two
options: either to recognize that the prosecution is lying, or
recognize that the defense is talking the truth,” Lutsenko said.
Prosecutors accuse
Lutsenko for illegally extending the surveillance of the driver of
Volodymyr Satsiuk, a former deputy head of Ukraine’s Security
Service. Satsiuk was present at the dinner with Yushchenko in
September 2004, which is when the Yushchenko’s poisoning allegedly
took place several weeks ahead of the presidential elections.
According to prosecutors,
by extending the surveillance, Lutsenko violated the driver’s
rights. Yet, the driver in his letter to the court said that he does
not consider himself a victim, and asked to not be called to court
again.
Th ex-top com remains in
Lukyanivka pre-trial detention center in Kyiv since he was arrested
on Dec. 26, 2010 and is not due to come out of prison until the end
of 2014. He’s appealing the verdict.
Kyiv Post staff
writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com