The Court of Appeals of Chernihiv region has postponed the consideration of the appeal for the release of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko from prison due to his illness until 1000 on February 18.

At its meeting on Friday, the court also ruled that Lutsenko should be delivered to the next meeting scheduled for February 18, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

Lutsenko's defense counsel Oleksiy Bahanets said that this was a decision of the Court of Appeals not to bring his client to the hearing on Friday, as the court said it had doubts about the authenticity of the ex-minister's statement that he wanted to be present in court.

"I understand that the statement by my colleague, who attached Lutsenko's statement to it, was not enough for the judges," the defense counsel said.

As reported, the convicted former interior minister, Lutsenko, who underwent surgery in the Oberig private clinic in Kyiv, was transferred back to Mena penal colony in Kyiv region on January 30. On February 6, doctors from Chernihiv Regional Hospital said that the condition of former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko is satisfactory. Lutsenko is currently under the constant surveillance of the medical staff of the Mena Penal Colony No. 91.

On December 24, Mena Penal Colony hosted a visiting session of the Mena District Court, which considered a petition lodged by Lutsenko's lawyer regarding the release of the former interior minister from prison due to an illness. Judge Savchenko found no grounds to release Lutsenko.

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 also charged with interfering in 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.

Lutsenko has been serving a sentence in Mena colony, Chernihiv region, since the end of August 2012.