Kyiv Court of Appeal judges recuse themselves from Chervinskyi case
The panel of judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, which was to consider the defense’s appeal against the extension of the detention of SOF Colonel Roman Chervinskyi, recused themselves today.
This was stated by Chervinskyi's lawyer Lyudmyla Kusa in a comment to Censor.NET.
She also added that yesterday the prosecutor filed a motion with the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv to extend the ex-intelligence officer's detention for another 60 days, but withdrew it. For what reason, she does not know.
"Today a new motion was filed with the court, which was supposed to be considered by Judge Golub. We recused this judge and went to the Court of Appeal, where a hearing was scheduled on our complaint against the previous decision, but it did not take place because the judges recused themselves. They recused themselves on the grounds that an outside observer might think that the judges were prejudged. This is the second time the judges have recused themselves from this complaint," the lawyer said.
According to the lawyer, the recusal of the investigating judge of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv, Holub, was not satisfied, and the hearing on the extension of the detention of Roman Chervinskyi was postponed to tomorrow.
Roman Chervinskyi's case
The media reported that the Ukrainian military had been recruiting a Russian pilot for several months to hijack the plane. According to media reports, Roman Chervinskyi was among them. Subsequently, as the SSU noted, the "operation" was carried out over the objections of the SSU and without the consent of the relevant state authorities. As a result, the enemy received information about the deployment of personnel of the Ukrainian Air Force and Ukrainian aircraft at the Kanatove airfield. This allowed the Russian Armed Forces to shell the airfield.
Later, Chervinskyi gave an exclusive interview for Censor.NET in which he spoke about the operation at Kanatove airfield.
In April 2023, the SSU served Chervinskyi with a notice of suspicion in the case of the shelling of the Kanatove airfield in Kirovohrad region by the occupiers. He was detained in the Ternopil region.
Major General Viktor Hanushchak, who was in charge of the military unit to which Colonel Chervinskyi was assigned as deputy commander, told Censor.NET that the operation at Kanatove airfield had been agreed with the top leadership of the Armed Forces. However, the court refused to hear Hanushchak and did not accept evidence in favour of Chervinsky.
Roman Chervinskyi was one of the intelligence officers who organised an operation in 2020 to detain Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC, luring them to Belarus. There, the mercenaries were supposed to board a plane that would later be crash-landed in Ukraine by the Ukrainian special services. However, the operation failed. On 24 June 2021, President Zelensky confirmed the preparation of a special operation against the Wagnerites. Zelenskyy also said that the special operation against the Wagnerites was the idea of other countries and that Ukraine was involved in this issue as much as possible.
In December 2021, DIU intelligence officers Chervinskyi and Semeniuk spoke about the betrayal of the operation. According to Chervinskyi, several people from the President's Office could have leaked information about the operation to detain the Wagnerites. He also said that the Presidential Office threatened the ex-intelligence officers with criminal proceedings.
On 28 December 2023, Colonel Roman Chervinskyi was served a notice of suspicion of attempting to seize USD 100,000 by impersonating an official of the State Fiscal Service.
