The Prosecutor General's Office grossly violated the law, saving the shamefully falling apart Yanukovych case
On July 12 at 10:00 the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv will meet for the next hearing in the case of high treason, which is charged with the overthrown President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych as a result of a coup. And the main intrigue will be the entry into the process of lawyer Vitaly Meshechek, assigned to the former head of state by the regional Center for Free Legal Assistance, the Kiev online newspaper reports "Country".
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The publication notes that after a week ago Viktor Yanukovych announced his withdrawal from the treason case and the recall of his lawyers Vitaly Serdyuk and Igor Fedorenko, the Prosecutor General’s Office “found itself in a delicate situation” due to the inability to ensure the continuation of the hearing of the case in conditions of refusal from the participation of the accused (both in person and remotely) and his defenders.
“The way out of the situation was the petition filed by supervisor Maxim Krym to provide the ex-president with a lawyer from the free legal aid system, which was satisfied by the panel of judges headed by Vladislav Devyatko. De facto, in order to give the process an element of adversarialism, the prosecution itself requested a new lawyer for Yanukovych. This frankly smacked of formalism and, most importantly, called into question the legality of the authorities’ actions.
The fact is that Viktor Fedorovich’s “paid” lawyers are still bound by a contract with him, and Yanukovych did not give any confirmation to another lawyer to enter the “trial of the century”. Moreover, as a “client,” the ex-president did not give the go-ahead to represent his interests to the new defender. However, these circumstances did not prevent the authorities from launching a bureaucratic machine to select a “free lawyer” for the fugitive guarantor of the Constitution,” writes Strana.
On July 10, a message appeared on the website of the Regional Center for the Provision of Free Secondary Legal Aid in Kyiv that a defense attorney had been appointed to protect the interests of the accused at public expense, who turned out to be 34-year-old lawyer Vitaly Meshechek (pictured).
As the publication found out, the new defender has been practicing his own law for only five years, and before that he played football and even spent two seasons as part of the Mariupol Azovstal.
Yanukovych's current lawyers called this decision illegal. Thus, defense attorney Vitaly Serdyuk said that Meshechek “is not Yanukovych’s lawyer, but a lawyer appointed by the BPP Center,” and the purpose of his appointment is “to give the illegal trial of the ex-president the appearance of legality.”
At the same time, he pointed out that it is legally established that a client can be protected if a person is present in the process and participates in it. Serdyuk also noted that Yanukovych still has an agreement for the provision of legal assistance with other lawyers, and therefore Meshechek cannot be a participant in the process.
“The Law “On Free Legal Assistance” stipulates that the participation of free lawyers is provided for those persons who do not have signed contracts with paid lawyers. But our agreement with Yanukovych has not been terminated,” Serdyuk emphasized.
“He [Meshechek] can begin to provide assistance only after a confidential meeting with the client and agreement on the position before the lawyer enters the process,” said Yanukovych’s lawyer.
It is noteworthy that the lawyers interviewed by “Strana” know practically nothing about Meshechok, and his appearance in the “Yanukovych case” was accompanied by oddities.
“Regional center on its own Online writes that the decision of the Obolon court on the allocation of the “besplatnik” came to them at 10:10 on July 7 and they immediately carried out the distribution. But until Friday evening, the Center called a number of lawyers, inquiring about their opportunity to enter this process,” the publication’s interlocutor said, noting that this circumstance proves that the distribution was carried out manually and in violation of the procedure.
Sources with whom journalists spoke claim that Meshechek was “involved” in the process at the command of employees of the Ministry of Justice, fulfilling the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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