Penitentiary service hasn't decided whether US ambassador should meet with Lutsenko in prison, says source
A decision on permitting U.S. Ambassador John Tefft to visit former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko at Mena Penal Colony has not been taken yet.
"A decision on permitting the U.S. ambassador to visit Yuriy Lutsenko tomorrow had not been taken as of the end of the working day," a source from the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, on October 19, the ex-minister's wife Iryna Lutsenko stated that the State Penitentiary Service had groundlessly rejected the U.S. ambassador's request for a meeting with her husband in the colony.
As reported, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court found Lutsenko guilty of a number of counts of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years in prison on February 27, 2012. Lutsenko was charged with the extension of an investigative case concerning Valentyn Davydenko, the driver of former SBU First Deputy Chief Volodymyr Satsiuk, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko on August 17, 2012 by Pechersky Court. The court sentenced Lutsenko to two years in prison.
On August 31, 2012, Lutsenko was taken to the Mena penal colony in Chernihiv region.
