Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych wants to take part in the court hearing on the selection of a preventive measure against him in the case of mass shootings of civilians at the Maidan Square in 2014.
According to a statement submitted to UNIAN by JSC AVER LEX, whose lawyers represent Yanukovych's interests in court, the former president asked the court to ensure his personal participation in the trial via videoconference.
The relevant consideration of the motion of the Office of the Prosecutor General will take place at Kyiv's Pechersky district court at 14:45 on December 9.
"The defense of Viktor Yanukovych also demands to involve all victims in the trial... Both sides, representatives of the then government and representatives of the Maidan, must be heard publicly. In addition to Viktor Yanukovych's personal participation in the trial, as already was made in this case by Kyiv's Sviatoshynsky district court in 2016, the victims must be admitted to the case," reads the report.
Read alsoYanukovych still on wanted list despite custody warrant lift in one of casesAccording to lawyers, in order to solve the murders on the Maidan committed in February 2014, along with the participation of Yanukovych and the victims, it is necessary to publicly interrogate witnesses both from the then government – Mykola Azarov, Vitaliy Zakharchenko, Oleksandr Yakymenko, etc., as well as from the Maidan – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Petro Poroshenko, Andriy Parubiy, Oleksandr Turchynov, and Yuriy Lutsenko.
What is more, the defense considers it necessary to interrogate David Zhvania, as well as the direct participants in the shooting, namely Ivan Bubenchyk, Volodymyr Parasyuk, as well as Georgian snipers.
Yanukovych's lawyer Vitaliy Serdiuk also said the defense was handing over to the court and would demand a public study of 15 volumes of materials that allegedly confirm the involvement of representatives of the post-Maidan authorities in the mass shootings.
Yanukovych's arrest: Background
- On January 24, 2019, Kyiv's Obolonsky district court considered Yanukovych's case in absentia and found him guilty of high treason and complicity in the conduct of an aggressive war. The former president was sentenced to 13 years in prison. At the same time, the court did not recognize the proven guilt of the ex-president in infringement of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
- Yanukovych did not attend hearings. He fled Ukraine for Russia in February 2014.
- On May 4, 2020, Kyiv's Pechersky district court selected a preventive measure against Yanukovych in the form of detention as a suspect in criminal proceedings dated November 7, 2017 on the fact of the seizure of state power (Part 1 of Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
- On May 12, Kyiv's Pechersky district court satisfied the Ukrainian prosecutors' motion to arrest Yanukovych without the right to bail.
- Yanukovych is suspected of organizing persecution and murder of participants in mass protests in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine on February 18-20, 2014, by means of abuse of power.
- On November 16, Kyiv's Court of Appeals overturned the ruling to arrest Yanukovych in absentia in the Maidan case investigating mass killings of civilians on February 18-20, 2014.
- The Court of Appeals also ordered the court of first instance to reconsider the investigator's motion to select a preventive measure against Yanukovych in the form of detention.
