Kyiv Pechersky District Court has dismissed former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko's motion for the recusal of Judge Viktor Kytsiuk, who is considering his appeal against the actions of officials of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and judges.
'The court has found no reason to remove Judge Viktor Kytsiuk… Yuriy Lutsenko's motion for the recusal of Judge Kytsiuk has been dismissed. This decision cannot be subject to appeal," reads the court's ruling announced by Judge Svetlana Volkova at a meeting in Kyiv on Friday.
As reported, on February 11, Lutsenko filed a motion for the recusal of Judge Viktor Kytsiuk saying that First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin is a member of the Supreme Council of Justice and could put pressure on Kytsiuk.
Lutsenko was detained on December 25, 2010.
Kyiv Pechersky District Court found the ex-minister 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. Kyiv Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.
Lutsenko has been serving a sentence in Mena colony, Chernihiv region, since the end of August 2012.
On December 26, 2012, Lutsenko asked Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka to prosecute First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin and investigator Serhiy Voichenko for making a decision on his detention and arrest.
On February 1, 2013, Kyiv Pechersky District Court rule to consider via a video linkup Lutsenko's appeal against a ruling to close the criminal case on crimes committed against him by officials of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and judges of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court and Court of Appeals.
