Yanukovych's in absentia arrest canceled due to lack of evidence that he is put on intl wanted list - Court of Appeal
Kyiv Court of Appeal explains the grounds for canceling the ruling of the Pechersky District Court on in absentia arrest of former President Viktor Yanukovych by the lack of evidence that he was put on the international wanted list.
"The Court of Appeal decided that the ruling of the investigating judge of the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv is illegal. Canceling the ruling, Kyiv Court of Appeal proceeded from the fact that the prosecutor had not proved the fact that suspect Yanukovych was declared internationally wanted, as required by the provision of Part 6 of Article 193 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine," the press service of Kyiv Court of Appeal posted a statement on the website on Friday.
According to the court, a special pretrial investigation is carried out on the basis of the ruling of the investigating judge in relation to a suspect who is hiding from the investigation and the court in order to avoid criminal liability and is put on the interstate or international wanted list.
The statement says that the investigating judge can consider an application to choose a preventive measure in the form of detention, and apply it in absentia of a suspect only if there is evidence that this suspect has been put on the international wanted list.
The court says that the State Bureau of Investigations only referred to the existence of a regulation declaring Yanukovych is on the wanted list.
"However, the investigator did not attach an extract with information that Yanukovych was put on the international wanted list on the basis of this regulation," the court said in a statement.
In addition, the court explains, materials from the Interpol General Secretariat were attached to the application, stating that the announcement for international search of Ukrainian former high-ranking officials is predominantly political in nature.
The Court of Appeal says that this decision of Interpol was not given an assessment, but only the circumstances were taken into account that, according to Interpol, Yanukovych is not on the international wanted list.
The court's statement also says that, following the consideration of the appeal, the panel of judges of the Court of Appeal "came to the conclusion that the suspicion of Yanukovych's commission of a criminal offense is reasonable, as well as the presence of risks that give grounds to believe that the suspect may be hiding from the pretrial investigation bodies."