Thursday
19 june 2008
13:27
While lawyer of Gongadze murderers is on vacation abroad, Supreme Court won’t consider appeals
Appeals by journalist Gongadze murderers are to be considered by three judges of Supreme Court Criminal Chamber headed by Judge Oleksandr Synyavsky. However, Mykola Laptiev, one of the accused policemen’s lawyer, failed to show up in court, sending a letter in which he requested the court to put off its hearings till after June 26, the day of his return to Ukraine from a vacation abroad, ZIK’s Kyiv correspondent reports June 19.Despite the prosecutor’s remark that the no-show of a defense lawyer should not prevent the court from considering the appeal, the presiding judge disagreed, insisting that all the parties of the trial be present in court.
Comment by ZIK
March 15, 2008, Kyiv’s Appellate Court convicted the accused former policemen of murdering investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze, sentencing Mykola Protasov to 13 years in jail, Oleksandr Popovych and Valery Kostenko to 12 years.
Apr. 15, M. Protasov’s defense lawyer Viktor Chevhuz appealed the court sentence in the Supreme Court of Ukraine, saying the sentence is too harsh.
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