The Appeals Chamber of the High Anti-Corruption Court postponed consideration of the prosecutors' appeal against the decision of the court of first instance to refuse to impose a preventive measure on the former head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Arms and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Oleksandr Liev until February 12. UNN correspondent reports from the courtroom.
Before the hearing began, the secretary informed the participants that the prosecutor had filed a motion with the court to postpone consideration of the appeal.
At the same time, she said, two of the judges on the panel that is supposed to participate in the trial are currently involved in another trial.
It is worth noting that Oleksandr Liev and his lawyers came to the court hearing.
"On the 29th, the HACC considered the case of my detention and decided to reject the prosecutor's request to apply a preventive measure in the form of detention, without fully satisfying it. That is, no preventive measure was chosen. In principle, this is a rather unique case in the HACC practice, because the judge in his opinion, the ruling, actually questions the suspicion itself. He says that, yes, the investigation can continue, but with regard to the suspect Mr. Liev, he does not see any conditions that would indicate the need to restrict him. The prosecutors filed an appeal, and now we are in the appeal, the prosecutors did not appear in the appeal, and at the same time there is still information that the appellate court did not meet in full. My lawyers and I arrived here half an hour earlier, we are ready to help the investigation, to provide full assistance in order to establish justice as soon as possible, to return the money to the state budget and to punish those who tried to profit from the ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces," Liev told reporters.
He added that he continues to collect evidence of his innocence and will cooperate with the investigation in every way possible.
"During this time, I continue to collect evidence of my innocence, I passed a polygraph, twice, at the Association of Polygraph Examiners of Ukraine, which confirmed that the entire plot of the case, the questions on which it was based, that I allegedly created a group with some people, they found that I had never known them and was not acquainted with them, that I had allegedly embezzled some money - they found that my answer was true, that I had never had such a goal and had never committed such actions, and they found that the contract was planned to be fulfilled. The polygraph also established that there was no purpose to evade responsibility - on the contrary, I was trying to help the investigation," Liev emphasized.
At the same time, he said, he will ask the court to attach the results of his polygraph test to the case file and take them into account. In addition, Liev plans to request a forensic physiopsychological examination (polygraph test), which will be conducted at a state institute. He also reminded that he had taken a polygraph before his release in January last year. At that time, the questions concerned, among other things, corruption and cooperation with the special services of other countries.
"It was a 40-hour polygraph that I took in the SBU psychophysiological laboratory on Volodymyrska Street. And it was passed without any comments," Liev emphasized.
He also noted that he plans to attend the appeal hearing.
"The trial has been postponed to the 12th, we will definitely be there, but there is a feeling that the prosecutors... that they simply have nothing to add, they just made this case out of something, threw it at NABU, in the face of me and Ukrainian society, got some publicity, collected likes, maybe even asked for some additional warrants," Liev said.
Recall
In late January, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that it had uncovered a scheme to embezzle public funds during the purchase of ammunition. The officials in question were officials of the Ministry of Defense and managers of the Lviv Arsenal. According to the investigation, the criminals tried to steal almost UAH 1.5 billion of budget funds for the purchase of 100,000 mortar rounds for the Armed Forces. However, the funds were not at the disposal of any individual, but were kept on the accounts of Lviv Arsenal and were arrested.
On January 27, 2024, Liev was detained in this case, but the High Anti-Corruption Court refused to apply any preventive measure to him due to lack of evidence. Prosecutors appealed the decision.
Oleksandr Liev resigned from the Ministry of Defense a year ago on February 3, 2023.