The chamber of the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine on Civil and Criminal Cases has postponed consideration of an appeal on the second conviction of former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko on April 5 at 1000.

As a correspondent of Interfax-Ukraine reported, Lutsenko asked the court not to transport him, since he is in a bad health.

At today's hearing Lutsenko gave evidence for the appeal. He said the arguments of the courts of first and appeal instances had been unreasonable.

The ex-minister stressed that "there is a categorical necessity to close this case, or to return it for the repeated investigation" because of the violation of his right to a defense, to fair justice.

"The trials of an opposition leader can't be objective. I understand this, but now the matter concerns not my justification, because I have already served my two years," he said.

According to the defendant, an acquittal by the Higher Specialized Court under the second appeal [in this case Lutsenko was convicted to two years imprisonment] will rehabilitate the judicial system of Ukraine.

On Friday the court is expected to hear the evidence of the prosecutor. Then it will withdraw to the deliberation room to make its ruling.

In fact, a ruling of the Higher Specialized Court on the appeal [on the verdict against Lutsenko regarding the poisoning of third Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko] will not shorten Lutsenko's stay in the Mena prison colony, since on April 3 the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine upheld Lutsenko's sentence to four years in prison for committing official crimes. The former minister could be freed at the end of 2014 at the earliest.