May 22 2003, 14:09 APK-Inform

Kozachenko's arrest is a political order. President and government are also in it - Kozachenko's lawyers

The attorneys for former Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Agriculture Leonid Kozachenko - Ihor Usenko and Larisa Zhuravska - have stated at a press-conference today that they consider criminal persecution of their client to be a political order, with the aim to discredit him as a politician and a public figure. They said Kozachenko too considered his case to be purely political and did not plead himself guilty on any of the accusations.

Ihor Usenko also emphasised that an attempt was being made in this case to discredit market approach in agricultural sector as such. The lawyers said they made conclusions about who the initiators of the case had been and who was benefiting from it, basing on information available to them from the case file. "These are the people who have immediate connection with different institutions of current power. They are the advocates of command and administrative policies in agriculture sector and are opposing the market views of Kozachenko", Usenko said. He said it also concerned the President's office and the Cabinet of Ministers.

On May 19 the Office of Prosecutor General completed investigation of criminal case against Kozachenko. He has been charged office abuse with especially grave consequences (to entail 5 to 8 years of imprisonment) and bribery in especially large scales (8 to 12 years in jail, according to Ukrainian Criminal Code).

After the accused and his lawyers have studied the file, the criminal case will be forwarded to a court to be proceeded. The lawyers said they were going to study the case in about 45 to 60 days.