Mykytas' defense notes political motives of prosecution
KYIV. Jan 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Lawyers of former head of the Ukrbud company, former MP Maksym Mykytas, who is in custody on suspicion of organizing the abduction of the capital's lawyer, note the groundlessness of the suspicion and the political motivation of Mykytas' prosecution.
At a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine, lawyer Yevhen Hrushovets said Mykytas is being held in an isolation ward, despite the absence of a substantiated charge. According to Hrushovets, the victim in this case "is definitely neither a lawyer, nor an assistant to a lawyer," and, probably, was tried. In addition, as noted by the lawyer, "the victim actually escaped from the police" after he was allegedly kidnapped. Hrushovets also said prosecutors do not come to the court session to consider the appeal against Mykytas' arrest.
"We are sure that this case has no legal perspective [...] Mykytas will be released from custody, and if the case goes to court, then the prosecutors will simply stop going to court hearings, because there is nothing, and they will be ashamed of this indictment in court," Hrushovets said.
In turn, lawyer Artur Gabrielian said that the testimony of the person on which Mykytas' accusation is based is based on information "from hearsay that Mykytas is allegedly involved in this." Answering a question whether Mykytas really entered into a deal with the investigation in the case of the theft of property of the National Guard of Ukraine and whether this deal was approved by the court, he said: "There is no agreement, and accordingly, it cannot be approved by the court." "We see the falsification of the criminal case, the bias of the police, taking into account this we believe that the police have neither the moral nor the legal right to investigate this case for one simple reason: there is a confrontation between Mykytas and Tatarov [Deputy Head of the President's Office Oleh Tatarov], and head of the main investigation department [of the National Police], Mr. Tsutskiridze, is godfather of Tatarov's child [...] there is a close connection between them, we believe that the case should be referred for investigation to another law enforcement agency for investigation, in order to eliminate all doubts about bias," the lawyer said, speaking about the case of the National Police on Mykytas' suspicion of organizing the abduction.
Lawyer Oleh Veremienko, clarifying the goals of Mykytas' criminal prosecution, said: "This is politically motivated persecution [...] he [Mykytas] has a business and property that those who have come to power have laid their eyes on [...] Maksym believes that Mr. Tatarov is involved in this case [...] since Tatarov himself comes from law enforcement agencies [...] organizing the persecution of his opponent is just one phone call."