12:41 19.10.2018

Court hearing into Yanukovych's state treason case postponed till Oct 22 because of attorneys' trip to Moscow to visit defendant

2 min read

The Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv has postponed court hearings into the case of the state treason by former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych until October 22.

At a court session on Friday, chief judge Vladislav Deviatko announced that the court had received letters from Yanukovych's attorneys Oleksandr Baidyk and Oleksandr Horoshynsky informing the court that the defendant former president had summoned them to Moscow to arrange for their legal stance and that that was the reason they had to leave.

Ruslan Kravchenko, a prosecutor of the Main Military Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, said that the court should approach the Assessment and Disciplinary Board of Defense Attorneys because Yanukovych's attorneys had demonstrated "the utmost contempt of the court."

"The fact is that the dates of the hearings had been scheduled beforehand, and the attorneys were supposed to follow the court's decision; however, as we can see, they have failed to do it," he said.

After brief deliberations with the panel of judges, Deviatko said that the court is "of no hurry in this process" as it has been guided by the principles of exercising all the available legal rights and interests of Yanukovych as the defendant. "Having taken all this into account, the court announces a break until 9 AM on October 22," he said.

As was earlier reported, on October 12 the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv announced the upcoming order of appearances in court trials in the Yanukovych state treason case.

After several hours of oral pleading by attorney Horoshynsky who was given permission by the court to complete the presentation of his arguments in the absence of another attorney Baidyk who had fallen sick, the court decided that Horoshynsky would be able to complete his court appearance at 9 AM on October 19.

Chief judge Deviatko announced that attorney Baidyk would be able to complete his legal debates on October 22, and on October 23 the court could be approached with the final plea by defendant Yanukovych in person or remotely via a video conference call under the condition that the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation would not be involved.

Also, the court reserved other dates for attorney Baidyk in the periods from October 22 to 25 and October 29 to 31 at 9 AM on each of the days, saying that those "were only backup dates."

AD
AD
AD
AD