Preliminary court hearing in the case of O. M. Korniyenko on February 19, 2019, at the Malynovsky District Court of Odessa

On February 19, 2019, at 10:00 a.m., the Odessa Court of Appeals determined the jurisdiction over the case of O. M. Korniyenko (since the Belgorod-Dnistrovsk City and District Court of Odesa Region had exhausted all possibilities for forming a panel of judges in this case) and referred it to the Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa for consideration.

On the same day, February 19, 2019, at 3:00 p.m., Denis Ponomarenko, a partner and attorney at Barristers Law Firm, received a phone call from S. Cherevko, an assistant to the judge of the Malynovsky District Court of Odessa, P., and informed him that an “expedited” preliminary hearing would be held in the case of O. M. Korniyenko “as soon as everyone arrives at the court.”

Around 5:00 p.m. that same day, a report came in that the building of the Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa had been mined, and all visitors and court employees were evacuated. However, this did not prevent the panel of judges of the Malynovsky District Court of Odessa from holding a preliminary hearing in the case of O. M. Korniyenko and, prior to deciding whether to schedule the case for trial, from extremely promptly reviewing the motion filed by I. I. Samorodova, the prosecutor of the Belgorod-Dnistrovskaya Local Prosecutor’s Office of Odesa Oblast, I. I. Samorodova, to impose a preventive measure in the form of pretrial detention on the unjustifiably accused.

Due to the failure of all parties to the proceedings to appear, the preliminary hearing was postponed. However, despite this, the panel of judges of the Malynovsky District Court of Odessa decided, in violation of the provisions of criminal procedure law, to consider the prosecutor’s motion to impose pretrial detention, which was subsequently granted without delay.

We are awaiting the full text of the ruling.