On July 5, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who stands charged with high treason in Ukraine said he will not participate in the in-absentia treason trial. The hearing was scheduled to resume in Kyiv on June 6 while the former president has been at large in Russia since 2014.
“I don’t want to participate in the alleged adversary trial, the outcome of which was determined in advance,” Yanukovych said in a statement, adding that his lawyers are “powerless” to argue his case “in the country of obliterated justice.”
The video address by the ousted president was published by the Russian state-owned Channel 1 on 5 July under the title “Former Ukraine’s president spoke to the journalists.” However, the video shows no journalists while former President Yanukovych speaks. There is nothing but a short anchor’s lead, and one and a half minute Yanukovych’s speech he reads from a teleprompter as judged by his repeated left-to-right and back eye movement.
Yanukovych accuses personally President Petro Poroshenko in adopting the law on trial in absentia “in the shortest time possible” to sentence Viktor Yanukovych who absconds in Russia. Runaway President Yanukovych says that the law violates the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Moreover, Yanukovych was refused to allow him to participate in the trial by video conference.
Viktor Yanukovych said prosecutors are “accusing me of all past, present, and future woes of Ukraine” and called the trial “a sham.”
On the next day, June 6, one of Yanukovych’s lawyers, Vitaliy Serdiuk said that Viktor Yanukovych has filed a motion over alleged coup d’état in 2014 with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office.
Serdiuk stated, “We are talking about deliberate and organized acts aimed at doing Ukraine harm. These include using force to seize power in our state. Namely, these actions led to […] negative events in Crimea and the loss of territorial integrity.”
This is the Russian narrative actively pushed in 2014 to justify the annexation of Crimea. Then Russia’s ambassador in the UN Vitaly Churkin had even displayed a letter by “legitimate President of Ukraine Yanukovych” at a meeting of the UN Security Council in March 2014 alleging that Viktor Yanukovych urged the Russian President Putin “to use the armed forces of the Russian Federation to re-establish the rule of law, peace, order, stability and to protect the people of Ukraine.” However, in 2017 the Kremlin denied the existence of Yanukovych’s “invasion letter.”
Yanukovych’s lawyer Serdiuk said that the statement to the PGO on the coup was in the process of being registered according to the established procedure as of 6 July.
The trial hearings opened at 10 a.m. on July 6 but lasted for less than 30 minutes, as neither the defendant nor his defense team were present in the courtroom. Now a public defense lawyer will be appointed by the state for Yanukovych.
Judges postponed the hearing until July 12.
Read more:
- The Kremlin doesn’t know what to do with Yanukovych’s letter
- Kremlin denies existence of Yanukovych’s “invasion letter”
- How Poroshenko differs from Yanukovych
- Why Putin needed the letter from Yanukovych
- 10 things you should know about interrogation of Yanukovych in Rostov
- Yanukovych’s cronies still free, possessing stolen millions
- How Interpol is saving Yanukovych
- Kremlin prepared Ukrainian scenario even before Yanukovych’s flight
- Interpol refuses to place Yanukovych on international wanted list
- Yanukovych and Co: How former Ukrainian officials have settled down in Moscow
- Yanukovych and co. stole over $11 billion annually
- February massacre in Kyiv carried out by “criminal organization headed by Viktor Yanukovych
