Kyiv Court of Appeals is deliberately delaying the review of appeal filed by the defense lawyers of UKROP leader Hennadiy Korban against his arrest. The politician’s lawyer Oksana Tomchuk told it to journalists on January 25. “Article 28 of the CPC of Ukraine provides for the shortest terms required to perform a particular procedural action. In this case, we still cannot achieve that the hearing on our appeal actually started,” said Oksana Tomchuk, noting that usually such appeals are heard within a week.
According to the defense lawyer, the court had no need to postpone the trial, because the annex to the appeal filed by the defense included no new facts that have not been discussed at previous meetings, so all these documents have already been investigated by the court. As for the necessary equipment of the courtroom accordance with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, which was another argument in favor of adjourning the court decision, in the opinion of a lawyer, it does not change the fact that Hennadiy Korban’s rights have been violated. Contrary to the Convention, he was kept in a cell during the three previous meetings.
"Whatever the court would do next, the fact of violation of the Convention already exists. How this relates to my client, why does he have to stay in custody all this time?” Oksana Tomchuk said in the conversation with journalists. According to her, another delay of the defense appeal and the lack of objection from the prosecution regarding this decision indicate that neither the court nor the prosecutor's office want to consider the relevant case.
Oksana Tomchuk also objected to Prosecutor General of Ukraine Vladislav Kutsenko on the alleged deliberate delay of the investigation procedure by the defense. According to the lawyer, the defense is unable to delay the investigation because the said trial will consider only restraint measures unrelated to the course of investigation.
“If a group of investigators can be virtually paralyzed by review of a single appeal on restraint measures, dismiss them because these people have nothing to do in law enforcement,” Oksana Tomchuk advised Vladislav Kutsenko. As previously reported, on January 25, Kyiv Court of Appeals postponed the appeal by defense of Hennadiy Korban against his arrest on February 2, 2016.
