For almost three years, the High Anti-Corruption Court has been considering the case of People's Deputy Serhiy Kuzminykh. The parliamentarian, accused of bribery, systematically fails to appear at hearings, and his lawyers have adopted a similar practice. Out of 86 court hearings, 31 were disrupted due to the non-appearance of the defense, writes UNN.
Details
The criminal proceedings accusing Kuzminykh of receiving undue benefits have been under consideration in court since September 2022.
As reported by the High Anti-Corruption Court in response to a UNN request, during this time, 86 court hearings were scheduled in this criminal proceeding.
Of these, 2 court hearings were postponed due to the non-appearance of lawyer L.S. Kryvoruchko, and 29 court hearings were postponed due to the non-appearance of lawyer V.M. Krasovsky, which led to the involvement of a lawyer by assignment from the Northern Interregional Center for Free Legal Aid to ensure the reasonableness of the terms of the criminal proceedings.
According to the HACC, in most cases, the defense submitted motions citing valid reasons for non-appearance, which were checked by the court each time by sending clarifying requests.
In addition, as emphasized by the HACC, the court repeatedly conducted the consideration of the said criminal proceeding in the absence of the defense counsel.
Also, lawyer V.M. Krasovsky and the accused People's Deputy of Ukraine repeatedly appealed to the HJC with relevant complaints about the actions of the panel of judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court in the specified criminal proceeding.
In addition, as reported earlier by the HACC, People's Deputy Serhiy Kuzminykh himself missed 22 court hearings out of 86, or every fourth hearing scheduled in his case.
Although formally every non-appearance of Kuzminykh himself and the defense was justified by documents or explanations, the situation where more than half of the hearings were disrupted due to the non-appearance of the people's deputy and lawyers looks like a typical delaying tactic.
And while the court is forced to postpone hearings, citizens observe how a person with a corruption suspicion shapes the country's pharmaceutical policy. After all, despite the criminal proceedings for a corruption offense, the people's deputy remained on the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health and also heads the subcommittee on pharmacy. As the media have repeatedly emphasized, it is Kuzminykh in the committee who actively lobbies for legislative changes that benefit certain large pharmaceutical manufacturers, not patients.
One of the key topics promoted by the people's deputy is a complete ban on marketing agreements between drug manufacturers and pharmacies. And although even the Ministry of Health has acknowledged that the marketing ban did not lead to lower drug prices, the deputy continues to promote his narratives, which "accidentally" completely coincide with the statements of representatives of the pharmaceutical plant "Darnytsia."
On Monday, July 7, another hearing in Kuzminykh's case is scheduled. Whether the deputy and his defense will attend is still unknown. We will follow up.
Recall
In 2022, more than three years ago, NABU caught Kuzminykh "red-handed" — the deputy received more than half a million hryvnias in bribes for assisting in signing contracts for the supply of medical equipment to a hospital in the Zhytomyr region.
On January 31, 2022, then-Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova signed a suspicion notice for him.
Serhiy Kuzminykh was not detained due to "deputy immunity," but he ignored interrogations, which led to him being declared wanted. After several days of "hiding," the people's deputy was finally detained for the selection of a preventive measure.
In May 2022, Kuzminykh was chosen a preventive measure in the form of bail of 49,600 hryvnias. Of course, the bail for the people's deputy was paid.
In September 2022, the indictment in the case against Kuzminykh was sent to the HACC for consideration on the merits. The stage of evidence examination is currently underway.