The Prosecutor’s Office of Kyiv has summoned for questioning three defence lawyers in the case of the chairman of UKROP political council Hennady Korban. They are to be interrogated within the criminal proceeding on their creating conditions for the activity of the criminal group allegedly organized by Hennady Korban. This information was added to the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations on January 20, 2016.
The politician’s defence lawyer Oksana Tomchuk has written it on her Facebook page. According to her, she was summoned for interrogation two days after the criminal proceeding had been opened – on January 22, just in the courtroom where she was “heroically” found by the whole unit of the Security Service. As it can be seen in the documents published by the lawyer, the order to “search” the defenders and to serve them summons was given to the SBU officer Pavlo Demchyna, the same person who was considered by Hennady Korban to be the organizer of his abduction on October 31 in Dnipropetrovsk.
Besides Oksana Tomchuk, the summons were also served to Andriy Bogdan, the lawyer of the chairman of UKROP political council, and Igor Cherezov who is a defence lawyer of Oleg Martynov, a suspect within the politician’s case. Questioning will take place during three days, from 25 to 27 January, while the first interrogation of Oksana Tomchuk is scheduled for 11.30 January 25, despite the fact that the same day at 10.00 the hearing of the complaints against Hennady Korban’s arrest is to be held in the Court of Appeal, where she has to be present too.
According to the defence lawyers, these actions may be regarded as the prosecution’s directly putting pressure on them.
“This is direct pressure and threatening of the lawyers in order to prevent us from defending our client. It is a revenge for our public position on highlighting primitivism and engagement of the prosecution’s charges,” said Andriy Bogdan.
In her turn, Oksana Tomchuk has emphasized that putting pressure on the lawyers and interfering in their professional activity is not only a crime, but also a pressing issue that influences society as a whole.
“The world where women do not bear children, where doctors do not treat their patients, where priests do not hear confessions, and where lawyers do not defend, is doomed,” summed up Oksana Tomchuk.
