17:04 02.04.2015

Kharkiv mayor Kernes' case to be heard in Poltava court

2 min read
Kharkiv mayor Kernes' case to be heard in Poltava court

Ukraine's higher specialized court for civil and criminal cases has moved court hearings on the case of Kharkiv mayor Hennadiy Kernes from Kharkiv's Dzerzhinsky district court to Poltava's Kyivsky district court.

The decision was made by the higher specialized court's three judges on Thursday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported. The decision means the petition filed by the Prosecutor General insisting that hearings on the case be relocated to the city of Kyiv has been partially satisfied.

The full text of the decision will be read out at 10:00 Kyiv time on April 7.

In late March 2015, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) submitted an indictment against Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes and two of his bodyguards to court.

The PGO said that on March 2, 2015, it notified Kernes of being suspected of committing crimes under Parts 2 and 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 146 (illegal restriction of freedom, or abduction), Parts 2 and 3 of Article 27, Part 2 of Article 127 (torture), Parts 2 and 3 of Article 27, Part 1 of Article 129 (threat of murder) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and announced the completion of the pre-trial investigation.

It became known on March 31 that a preliminary hearing on the Kernes case at Kharkiv's Dzerzhinsky district court had been postponed until April 7 due to the absence of the victims.

Later on the same day, Ukraine's higher specialized court decided to continue the consideration of a decision on rescheduling Kernes' case for April 2. The case was to originally be heard by Kharkiv's Dzerzhinsky district court. This was done to ensure that the prosecution would have more time to gather evidence from the victims' residence in Kyiv's Solomiansky district, while the defense could prepare its objections to this.

As reported, unidentified individuals attacked participants in a demonstration in support of Euromaidan in Kharkiv on January 25, 2014. The same day, deputy of Kharkiv regional council Ivan Varchenko (Batkivschyna) reported the kidnapping of two Euromaidan activists – Oleksandr Kutianin and Oleksiy Riapolov "after they removed the license plates of cars near National Hotel that belonged to Kernes' friends". Later, the PR department of the Interior Ministry's main department in Kharkiv region said they did not have confirmation of the information about the abduction of the two activists.

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