’Savchenko’s Law’ helped defendant in Verbytskyi-Lutsenko case Volkov to be released from custody - Lutsenko’s lawyer Kryhan
By the decision of the Kyiv Court of Appeal, Oleksandr Volkov, who was charged with organising the abduction, torture and murder of Yuriy Verbytskyi, as well as the abduction and torture of Ihor Lutsenko, was released from custody, as under the 'Savchenko law', one day of pre-trial detention was considered to be 2 days of imprisonment.
This was reported by Ihor Lutsenko's lawyer Liubov Kryhan in a comment to Censor.NET.
According to her, the full court decision will be announced on 12 August.
"Then we will be able to assess the court's motives and agree or disagree with them. For me personally, it is difficult to accept this decision. We did not file a separate appeal, because we primarily supported the prosecution of Prosecutor Malashich," she said.
Kryhan recalls that Volkov's case was first heard in 2018 by the Boryspil City District Court of Kyiv Region. In April 2021, this court sentenced Volkov to 9 years in prison.
Four appeals were filed against this 2021 sentence: one by Volkov himself and his defence lawyers, and another by Yulia Malashych, a prosecutor in the Prosecutor General's Office, and Yevhenia Zakrevska, a representative of Verbytskyi's brother.
These appeals were heard by the Kyiv Court of Appeal, chaired by Judge Tiutiun.
"Savchenko's law" played into Volkov's hands
"Yesterday, we received the verdict of the Court of Appeal on the sentence imposed by Boryspil in 2021. That is, the judicial path of this case since 2018 is 6 years. 6 years of consideration of one case in court!" the lawyer explained.
Kryhan confirmed that Volkov was released right in the courtroom.
Let me explain: the court of first instance sentenced Oleksandr Volkov to 9 years in prison. He was convicted under Article 146, Article 127 and Article 135. Volkov's sentence began to be counted from July 2017, when he was detained and taken into custody. And given that Volkov was detained in 2017, the period of pre-trial detention from 29 July 2017 until the day the court verdict came into force was calculated at the rate of 1 day of pre-trial detention for 2 days of imprisonment. "Savchenko's Law" was the reason why Volkov left the courtroom yesterday," she said.
Appeal against the verdict
According to her, there is a possibility of a cassation appeal against this verdict. This can be done by the persons who filed the appeal.
"We cannot appeal the decision of the appeal, because we did not have an appeal. I cannot comment on the position of the prosecutor's office (Lutsenko's defence supported the prosecutor's appeal - Ed.) or Verbytskyi's representatives on this issue. As for Verbytskyi, the victim in the proceedings was Yurii Verbytskyi's brother Serhii, who also died in 2023. We actually lost the victim. The main problem in this criminal proceeding is that, according to the prosecution, Volkov, in particular, was accused of killing Verbytskyi. The court of first instance ruled that there was no murder under Article 115 and reclassified the charge of leaving in danger under Article 135. This, accordingly, is a less serious crime," the lawyer explained.
The court, according to Kryhan, referred to the fact that, according to the forensic medical examination, the cause of Verbytskyi's death was hypothermia.
Oleksiy Chebotarev
"Volkov is just one of the cogs in this system that existed. It was headed by Oleksiy Chebotarev, a former business partner of former Interior Minister Zakharchenko. Currently, the criminal proceedings against Chebotarev are being heard in absentia in the Podil District Court. These people were united by one common criminal intent. It was an organisation that planned together how to kidnap Maidan activists, coordinated actions, where to take them, where to torture them. A witness interrogated in court told how he drove up to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, from which Chebotarev had left, in order to obtain funds to finance the aunts involved. Volkov is a grey personality compared to the people who were behind it all. This is Oleksiy Chebotarev, this is Viktor Zubrytskyi, this is one criminal family, which remains so today, because most of this group fled to Russia... We understand that the case of Verbytskyi and Lutsenko is the one that has reached the court, these people will never admit how many people they have kidnapped. We have the case of Ivanenko's abduction, and other defendants in this case are Serhiy Myslyvyi and Ivan Navotnyi. Volkov is not the first person to be released due to the latency of the judicial system. For Navotnyi, the panel of judges in Bila Tserkva failed to extend the measure of restraint on the eve of their holiday," she summarises.
Earlier, Censor.NET reported that Oleksandr Volkov, a defendant in the case of Verbytskyi's murder and Lutsenko's abduction, was released from custody.
In April 2021, the Boryspil Court of Kyiv Region sentenced Oleksandr Volkov to 9 years in prison, accused of the abduction and murder of Yuriy Verbytskyi and the abduction of Ihor Lutsenko.
As a reminder, Ihor Lutsenko and Yuriy Verbytskyi were abducted in Kyiv on 21 January 2014. A group of unidentified men took them outside the city and tortured them for several hours. Later, Lutsenko was left in the forest in the Boryspil district, he managed to get to the village and report his whereabouts. Later, Verbytskyi's body was found in the same area.
