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VPM for agriculture Kyrylenko refused to arrive in court to give evidence on Kozachenko case
On November 17 Pechersk District Court of Kiev was unable to start interrogating the witnesses on the case against former Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Leonid Kozachenko, as none of the witnesses, summoned to court for the day, had arrived, the lawyer for the defendant ex-official Ihor Usenko informed.
The acting Vice Prime Minister for Agriculture Ivan Kyrylenko, who had been summoned to court among another three witnesses, refused to arrive at the hearing. He handed to the court a statement, in which, referring to his inability to come because of his position and the duties he performs, he asked the court to read off the evidence he had given at the preliminary investigation.
The defence party stressed that reading off the witnesses' evidence in court without personal presence of the witnesses is prohibited, as the criminal proceedings stipulate direct examination of the evidences in court. "The more so, because Kyrylenko is the main witness for prosecution", Usenko said.
He said that the causes of non-arrival of other witnesses were being investigated.
The court listened to the parties and decided that it was necessary to provide for arrival of the witnesses in court, in accordance with the law. In this respect, the court announced a break in the proceedings till November 20.
Among the other witnesses the court had summoned the Head of Vice-Prime Minister Kyrylenko's Press-Service V. Demyanchuk, the Head of State Committee for Statistics Osaulenko, an assistant for Vice-Prime Minister Kyrylenko Cherepanov, the Head of Board of CJSC "Khlib Ukrainy" Slabovsky.
As we have already reported, on March 24 this year the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine started a criminal case against Leonid Kozachenko. He is now accused on two articles of Ukrainian Criminal Code - office abuse resulting in grave consequences and bribery in especially large scale.
Kozachenko held the position of Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Agro-Industrial Complex since June 9, 2001 till November 26, 2002.