Chervinsky’s term of detention was extended without defence counsels. He is now in pre-trial detention centre - lawyer Lysenko
Kirovohrad district court extended the term of detention for 60 days for SOF colonel Roman Chervinsky. He was transferred to Kirovohrad pre-trial detention centre.
This was reported by lawyer Serhiy Lysenko in a comment to Censor.NET.
According to the defence counsel, on Monday, the lawyers received a ruling according to which, on Friday evening, the court extended the term of Chervinsky's detention. According to this ruling, the prosecutor filed a motion to extend the period of detention. The opinion of Chervinsky, who was also present at the hearing, was not heard or taken into account.
Chervinsky's defence counsels were absent from the hearing, as the air raid alarm had been sounded four times in a row beforehand, and they did not physically have time to return to the court, which has no shelter at all.
Moreover, even the lawyers providing free legal aid were not involved in the consideration of this issue, which is a gross violation of the right to defence.
Since the article of the Criminal Code under which Chervinsky is charged provides for a sentence of more than 10 years, the issue of extending his detention must be considered in the presence of defence lawyers.
Although the court referred to Article 615 of the CPC, which refers to the special regime of criminal proceedings under martial law, it did so unreasonably and illegally, as this article does not cancel the right to defence.
Chervinsky's defence will appeal against the court's decision, and will also file complaints with the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors and the High Council of Justice.
"If we are denied consideration of the appeal, we will appeal to the cassation instance," he stressed.
Lysenko also added that while his client was being held in the SSU detention centre, security measures were applied to him.
"Now he is being held in the Kropyvnytskyi pre-trial detention centre on a general basis, so we will appeal to the prosecutor's office and the court to apply security measures to Chervinsky," he concluded.
The case of Roman Chervinsky
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 Chervinsky 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, Chervinsky gave Censor.NET an exclusive interview in which he spoke about the operation at Kanatove airfield.
In April 2023, the SSU served Chervinsky 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 Chervinsky 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 Zelenskyy 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 Chervinsky was served a notice of suspicion of attempting to seize USD 100,000 by impersonating an official of the State Fiscal Service.
