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Prosecutor's Office acknowledged invalidity of charges against L. Kozachenko, his lawyer says
On January 20, 2004 the Prosecutor's General Office submitted an application to the Pechersk District Court of Kiev about returning the criminal case against former Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Leonid Kozachenko to an extra investigation, due to insufficient number of evidences on the case, the defendant ex-official's layer Ihor Usenko has informed.
"There is so great number of flaws that it is impossible to remove them in the course of hearing", Usenko said.
The application of the Prosecutor's Office says that the charge is not concrete and does not specify the actual circumstances of committing the crime and its motives. The Prosecutor's Office has been thus unable to provide a full-value proof even of the fact of crime on any of the charges, he said.
"Submitting the application on the initial stage of the court trial, when not more than 10 percent of the witnesses from total list have been interrogated and multitudinous volumes of the criminal case have not yet been examined, testifies of acknowledging the invalidity of accusation by the Prosecutor's General Office. Such a turn in the case would allow to avoid the acquittal sentence and to stretch the process out for an indefinite time", the lawyer has commented.
Also today Pechersk District Court has issued a ruling about refusal from satisfaction of the claim, stated in the application. The court will continue examination of evidences on the case.
On March 24, 2003 the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine started a criminal case against Leonid Kozachenko, accusing him of three crimes. Now he is being charged of power and office abuse, resulting in grave consequences, and bribery in especially large scale. Pechersk District Court started hearing of the case on October 29, 2003.
Kozachenko held the position of Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Agro-Industrial Complex since June 9, 2001 till November 26, 2002. Many politicians, business people and public figures in Ukraine and abroad state that criminal charges against him are purely politically motivated.