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Criminal case against Kozachenko referred to court
Prosecutor's General Office on September 10 declined the appeal about stopping criminal case against Ukraine's former Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Leonid Kozachenko and submitted the case to Kiev City Court, the lawyer of the accused ex-official Ihor Usenko has told APK-Inform.
The first sitting of the court, which is to decide if the case is ready for hearing and whether all the organisational issues are finalised, must be held within twenty days since submission of the documents, the lawyer said. He said that first sitting was likely to be held without presence of the accused.
On September 5 the defendant and his lawyers signed the protocol about completion of familiarisation with the materials of the case, accusing L. Kozachenko of office abuse and bribery. On completion of this procedure the appeal was submitted by the lawyers to Prosecutor's Office about stopping the case, due to absence of the fact of crime.
Criminal case against Leonid Kozachenko was started on March 24 this year on accusation of office abuse, resulting in grave consequences, and tax evasion in especially large size. On the same day the former official was arrested. On April 5 the Prosecutor's Office brought in another accusation - of bribery in an especially large scale. On May 19 investigation of the case was completed, the charge of tax evasion up to that moment having been lifted (the two remaining charges, according to Ukraine's Criminal Code, entail up to 8 and up to 12 years in jail correspondingly). On June 12, by the decision of Kiev's Pechersk District Court, the accused was released on bail.
Leonid Kozachenko, born 1955, held the position of Ukraine's Deputy Prime Ministry for Agro-Industrial Complex since June 9 till November 26, 2002.
After his arrest there have been numerous publications in Ukraine and abroad and numerous appeals of politicians, business people and public figures, stating that his criminal case is purely politically motivated and the charges against him have been forged by some political forces, interested in his removal from Ukraine's political arena and discrediting the very idea of market economy methods in managing the country's agricultural sector, advocated by Kozachenko.