Court hearing in Chervinskyi case has been postponed
Kirovohrad District Court in Kropyvnytskyi has postponed to 12:00 p.m. on April 19 the court hearing in the case of Roman Chervinskyi, former acting head of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This decision was made at a preparatory court hearing by a panel of judges Ihor Hershkul, Oleksandr Kvitka, and Iryna Boiko, as the air raid alert began, Censor.NET reports.
About fifty people came to the court to support Chervinskyi. These were his friends and relatives, as well as residents of Kropyvnytskyi. People came with flags of Ukraine, posters with Chervinskyi's image and inscriptions calling for "Freedom for Chervinskyi."
The court session lasted from 12:00 to 18:00 p.m.. During this time, Chervinskyi's lawyers filed a number of motions and even called the police. The prosecutor's request to extend the term of the preventive measure, which expires on April 19, was not considered.
At the beginning of the court session, one of Chervinskyi's four lawyers, Andrii Yosypov, requested a postponement of the hearing due to the need to repeatedly summon seventeen victims claimed by the prosecution.
As the lawyer emphasized, at the previous hearing on April 17, the court granted the defense's motion for a hearing by a panel of three professional judges. According to the lawyer, due to the change in the composition of the court, the victims should be notified of the summons to the hearing again.
Lawyer Kostiantyn Hloba said that he had known from one of the victims declared by the prosecution that he had renounced this status. The man stated that he did not consider himself a victim of Chervinskyi's actions and was convinced that he had been granted this status unlawfully.
Viktor Kobets, a prosecutor from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, objected, emphasizing that, in his opinion, the criminal proceedings had not changed, and the victims had previously expressed their position on attending the hearing.
Judge Igor Hershkul granted the defense's motion and proposed to move on to the issue of extending the term of the preventive measure for Roman Chervinskyi, as it expires on April 19.
The defense lawyers objected and filed a number of motions. In particular, defense lawyer Kostiantyn Hloba claimed that he had been provided with an inadequate memo on his rights and obligations.
During the court hearing, Hloba called the police to record the violations he believed had been committed. In particular, the improper memo on the rights and obligations of a lawyer was handed to him, as well as the alleged falsification of responses submitted by the victims in the case regarding the consideration of the proceedings without their participation. The defense also wanted to record alleged violations in the formation of the panel of judges.
The representative of the investigative team who had come to the court took the defense counsel's explanations, and the people present at the hearing who came to support Chervinskyi also filed their statements.
Lawyers Liudmyla Kusa and Andrii Yosypov drew attention to the fact that there could have been interference with the automated system of automatic distribution when forming the panel of judges.
As the defense lawyers explained, on April 17, after Judge Ihor Hershkul granted the motion to hear the case collectively, the court conducted an automatic distribution and appointed three judges. Namely, Hershkul, Oleksandr Kvitka and Iryna Boiko.
However, according to the information in the automatic distribution system, Boiko was in training that day. According to Hloba's lawyer, recalling a judge from a business trip and including her in the list for an automatic distribution on the same day is a violation.
Lawyer Kusa emphasized that according to the information from the automatic distribution system for April 17, when determining the judges who would hear Chervinskyi's case, at 1:18 p.m., Judge Boiko was listed in the system as the judge to whom the case could be distributed. However, on the same day, during the automatic distribution of another case, that was already at 2:06 p.m, Boiko was excluded from the system on the grounds of being in training. According to the defense counsel, this indicates interference with the system.
The defense lawyers stated that based on these facts, they appealed to the SBI and filed complaints with the State Judicial Administration, the High Qualifications Commission of Judges and the High Council of Justice.
Lawyer Hloba filed a motion to recuse the judges. However, the panel rejected the motion, stating that it was premature. Judge Hershkul pointed out that Judge Boiko had been recalled from training by a relevant order and was included in the system.
After that, the defense counsels emphasized that certain information in the criminal proceedings had classification level, but they were not provided with confirmation that the judges and the courtroom clerk had access to state secrets. On this basis, they filed a motion to recuse the court. However, this motion was also rejected by the judges.
At around 6:00 p.m., the air raid alert was raised, and the lawyers requested that the hearing be postponed. Roman Chervinskyi drew attention to his poor health condition and the need for proper nutrition, as he had been in court for half a day. The court agreed to the motion and adjourned the hearing to 12:00 on April 19.
It should be added that, according to Kostiantyn Hloba, the defense has again appealed to the Supreme Court with a motion to change the jurisdiction of the case and send it to the Kyiv-Sviatoshynskyi District Court. The previous motion to send the case to the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv was rejected by the Supreme Court.
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.
