Court extends detention of former SBU department chief in Maidan case

The Pechersk District Court of Kyiv has extended the preventive measure in form of detention in custody for ex-chief of the department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Oleksandr Shchoholev until November 18.

This is reported by the Human Rights Information Center correspondent from the courtroom.

The investigators accuse the former chief of Kyiv and Kyiv region department of the SBU of violation of Part 2 of Article 115 of the Criminal Code. The case involves two people who died in the fire in the House of Trade Unions in Kyiv. The article provides for a life sentence. The investigators believe that the suspect was head of the “anti-terrorist operation”, which began on February 18, 2014.

Oleksandr Shchoholev is also charged with disturbance of public rallies.

The petition of the Prosecutor General’s Office on the detention in custody was considered for two days.

October 15, the defense of Oleksandr Shchoholev challenged prosecutor Pavlo Kozhukhovsky. The lawyers of the suspect doubt that the prosecutor is impartial, as he handed the motion on preventive measure over to the suspect with procedural violations.

“A party should be notified of any investigative proceeding not later than three days in advance. Neither I, nor my colleagues, nor my client were notified,” lawyer Olena Priadko said, arguing that prosecutor Pavlo Kozhukhovsky tried to hand over the motion at the court on October 13.

“I have not still received any documents within the established procedural norms,” Oleksandr Shchoholev said to judge Larysa Tsokol.

“Article 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that the motion for extension of the period of detention in custody shall be handed over five days prior to the previous decision end date. Article 184 of the Criminal Procedure Code stipulates that a suspect shall have the right to obtain a copy of the motion and of the materials justifying the motion. Pursuant to the requirements of this article for the purpose to ensure the right to defense of the suspect, I tried to give the materials to the suspect three times in the premises of the Pechersk court on October 13. However, the suspect refused to receive those documents in order not to let extend the term. I have drew up the relevant procedural documents over that fact, while the specialist of the Prosecutor General’s Office captured that on video,” prosecutor Pavlo Kozhukhovsky said in the courtroom.

According to him, if the defense does not agree with the actions of the prosecutor, it is not the reason to challenge the prosecutor.

“They refuse to receive documents and state that we are trying to violate their rights. The prosecutor’s office acts within the law, the documents are handed over in the presence of the defense,” the prosecutor said.

The court rejected challenging the prosecutor. Then the lawyers filed the motion to challenge judge Larysa Tsokol. The motion was rejected also.

Prosecutor Pavlo Kozhukhovsky believes that the investigation has enough evidence against Oleksandr Shchoholev.

“We have collected enough evidence to reasonably suspect Shchoholev. These are testimonies of witnesses – the law enforcement officers and other people. These are testimonies of the victims, who were at the crime scene. We have findings of forensic, economic, explosive and technical expert examinations. We also have other evidence, such as video recordings of those events and so on,” the prosecutor said.