Ukrainian Prosecutor General: Yanukovych’s trial is also Putin’s trial
Yanukovych’s trial is also Putin’s trial, because the court ruling clearly states that Russia’s used Yanukovych‘s letter to Putin for occupation of Crimea and part of the Donbas, says Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.
The prosecutor was commenting on the verdict recently given by the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv on Yanukovych’s case for high treason and complicity in aggressive warfare, in which the former Ukrainian president was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison.
According to Lutsenko, this ruling has historic significance.
“This ruling gave punishment for treason in the name of all the people who gave their lives without betraying their country. The hundreds killed at the Maidan, the thousands killed in the war that began due to a letter signed by Yanukovych to the Russian President about bringing in troops. This is the entire path of treason that received a legal appraisal. Yanukovych is a criminal, he is guilty of high treason, he is an accomplice of the person who unleashed an aggressive war against Ukraine,” Lutsenko emphasized.
He noted that the Prosecutor General’s Office is confident in its arguments and will also participate in the case at the Court of Appeals.
“I am confident that the crime will be appraised as a crime there too,” the Prosecutor General observed.
Lutsenko also said that this is not the only trial, but merely the beginning.
“The courts have the cases of Yefremov, Lavrynovych, Arbuzov, Kurchenko, Klymenko, Stavytskyi, and many other members of Yanukovych’s organized anti-government criminal group. This trial is a warning to all of Ukraine’s future and current high-ranking officials. Not one position gives a guarantee of avoiding accountability for robbing or betraying Ukraine. There is one law for everyone, and payback time comes for everyone,” he stressed.
As reported previously, on 24 January the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv found former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych guilty of high treason and complicity in aggressive war. Yanukovych was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison. The verdict stated that Russia’s actions in Crimea qualify as an act of aggression, and that Yanukovych’s actions make him complicit in this.