Court ruling confirms illegality of Bakhmatyuk's arrest in absentia – media
This is reported by Ukrainian News.
On May 25, 2020, Kyiv's Court of Appeals revoked a court ruling to arrest and remand in custody Konstantin Zhevago, which was delivered by Kyiv's Pechersky District Court in early December 2019, because the defendant was not on the international wanted list. "The appellate court's ruling has established that Zhevago was not and is not on the international wanted list, was not and is not hiding from the pretrial investigation and the court, and also that there are no legal grounds for remanding Zhevago in custody," Zhevago's press service said.
"Under similar circumstances, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) ruled to detain in absentia businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk, who is also not on the international wanted list. The appeals court's ruling in the Zhevago case also confirms the illegality of the HACC's decision dated May 28 this year against Oleg Bakhmatyuk, as stated by his lawyers referring to the norms of the current legislation," the media outlet wrote.
Moreover, the HACC's Appeals Chamber ruled on the cancellation of the arrest of former Health Minister Raisa Bohatyriova in absentia. The rationale of the ruling says that when delivering a suspicion notice to Bohatyriova, the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office grossly violated the Code of Criminal Procedure.
"It must be mentioned that a similar violation was committed during the unlawful delivery of a suspicion notice to Bakhmatyuk, which was stressed by Bakhmatyuk's lawyers. Thus, the HACC delivered two directly opposite rulings in two identical cases within one week, which cannot but arouse suspicion that it is politically motivated," the media added.
As was earlier reported, court rulings in cases against ex-officials of Viktor Yanukovych's presidency - Andriy Kliuyev and Oleksandr Klymenko - also banned their arrest in absentia over to the fact that they are not on the international wanted list. The only decision on arrest in absentia taken under similar circumstances concerns Oleg Bakhmatyuk. His lawyers said that such a ruling had been taken under pressure from Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk, who has a conflict of interest in this matter.
