Court acquits judge who revoked Automaidan activist’s driving license

The Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv acquitted judge of the Kyevo-Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv region Vladyslav Lysenko, who was accused of unlawful revocation of an Automaidan activist’s driving license.

 This was announced by judge Serhiy Diachuk, the Ukrayinski Novyny (Ukrainian News) news agency reports.

“To acquit Vladyslav Lysenko, to cancel the pre-trial restriction in form of a personal recognizance,” he read out the verdict.

Judge Lysenko was accused of passing unlawful judgment on revocation of a driving license of an Automaidan activist, who allegedly took part in the automobile rally to the residence of President Viktor Yanukovych in Mezhyhiria.

However, the Automaidan activist proved that he had been in a completely different place at the mentioned time and had not taken part in the rally.

In March 2014, the court of appeal granted his complaint and repealed the verdict of judge Lysenko on revocation of a driving license.

Judge Diachuk acknowledged in the verdict that judge Lysenko had passed unlawful judgment but stressed that there had been no evidence of his intent, as stipulated in Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

After the verdict was announced, the prosecutor informed the agency that he intended to examine the judgment and then to consider the advisability of lodging an appeal.

The verdict of judge Lysenko is the first verdict in the case of the judges who delivered the judgments against the Euromaidan activists.

In a commentary to the Ukrayinska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) online newspaper, lawyer of the victims and witness in the court Roman Maselko explained this verdict by saying that the prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit, knowing that it would fall apart.

In particular, according to him, all the charges were based only on his testimony.

“This is definitely wrong. The prosecutor’s office could and should collect large evidence base. It was available. In particular, judge Lysenko delivered not only one judgment, he delivered up to ten judgments on Automaidan. The prosecutor’s office was due to consider all those judgments as a whole and to examine and check my testimony about the influence on this judge exerted by the chairman of the court. However, the prosecutor’s office did not even held a simultaneous questioning of me and the judge,” Maselko said.

The lawyer added that he had suggested carrying out examination using the polygraph.

“The prosecutor’s office did not think about that at the pre-trial stage. Other witnesses were not questioned as well. It was not established why the Automaidan cases were considered by only two judges in this court,” he added.

Maselko specified that the pre-trial investigation was conducted by the prosecutor’s offices of Kyiv city and Kyiv region.