The Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases will continue considering at 1000 on April 3 a cassation appeal lodged by former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko against the verdict on charges of official crimes.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that Presiding Judge Serhiy Slynko had announced a respective decision.

The defense team and Lutsenko himself started giving their explanations at a court session on Tuesday.

The former interior minister pointed to a number of procedural irregularities during the consideration of his case in previous courts.

In particular, he mentioned the illegality of his arrest, which was confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment, the failure to explain to him the essence of the charges, the deviation of the interrogation of all witnesses and experts, who were requested by the defense team, and other violations.

Lutsenko again said that the charges against him were far-fetched and brought for political reasons.

"The celebration of the Police Day cannot be a crime," he said, adding that this event was organized to implement a respective presidential decree, like other professional holidays.

"You cannot doubt that I will win this case in the European Court [of Human Rights]. But why disgrace the country if it's obvious to everybody?" he said.

The ex-minister did not finish his speech, so he will continue providing explanations on Wednesday.