Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko believes the decision by the Kyiv Court of Appeals to keep former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in jail for another month is unfair, according to Official website of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"I think everyone who attended the trial suffered a real shock because the reason for Yuriy Lutsenko’s arrest was that he didn’t read the criminal case within the timeframe and how the investigators wanted. But today Yuriy Lutsenko came to court having read all the case materials," Yulia Tymoshenko said after today’s hearing regarding Yuriy Lutsenko’s detention.
Yulia Tymoshenko believes the Kyiv Appeals Court has no grounds to keep Yuriy Lutsenko in custody. "They only reason for his arrest (that he’s not reading his case) is gone. He simply said: I read the case. What do I do now in jail? But the Kyiv Court of Appeals needed no grounds to keep him under arrest," she stressed.
Yulia Tymoshenko believes Yuriy Lutsenko`s appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is appropriate. "It was very important for me that Yuriy Lutsenko appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to defend his good name and freedom. The European Court of Human Rights has accepted this application, and what’s more, they will be considering it through an abbreviated procedure," she said.
"We will all be eagerly awaiting the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights and know that they will return Yuriy Lutsenko his good name and will put this Ukrainian government, which has privatized Ukrainian justice, in its place," she added.
Today, April 21, the Kyiv Court of Appeals ruled to keep Yuriy Lutsenko in custody for up to five months.
Yuriy Lutsenko was arrested near his home on December 26, 2010 and has been in jail ever since. He is charged with abuse of office and forgery. He is also accused of unjustified extension of surveillance of a suspect in the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko.
