A notice of suspicion of an especially serious crime was deemed unfounded by the investigating judge

Attorneys at Barristers JSC Iryna Kuzina and Oleksandr Tananakin acted as defense counsel for the former head of one of Kyiv’s district city administrations during the hearing on the prosecution’s motion to impose a preventive measure in the form of bail in the amount of 552,300 UAH This was in connection with his being suspected of violating Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation of another person’s property through abuse of official position by a public official, committed on an especially large scale).

The day before, the press service of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office had released information to the media regarding the notification of this official of the suspicion against him.

The defense succeeded in having the prosecutor’s motion denied in its entirety.

The investigating judge (Ruling No. 1-ks/754/2584/18 dated August 15, 2018) stated that “the suspicion set forth in the investigator’s motion… is unfounded, unclear, and does not correspond to the provisions of the specified article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (it does not specify the time, place, or manner of the commission of the crime).”

The court also noted the poor quality of the motion’s preparation. The defense attorneys claimed a substantial violation of the right to defense, since the notice of suspicion and the motion to impose a preventive measure regarding an especially grave crime were served without the participation of the defense attorneys (whose participation is mandatory under Article 52 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine), and the suspect had not been questioned at all in that capacity.