HACC hearing on SSU General Duka: SAPO prosecutor’s motion to recuse judge rejected. VIDEO
The prosecution (SAPO) sought the recusal of High Anti-Corruption Court Judge Volodymyr Voronko over restrictions on public access to the hearing on pre-trial restrictions for SSU General Serhii Duka.
SAPO prosecutor Mykola Karas said this, Censor.NET reports.
Updated
- HACC investigating judge Kravchuk rejected the SAPO prosecutor’s motion to recuse investigating judge Volodymyr Voronko.
- Judge Oleksii Kravchuk ignored the SAPO prosecutor’s arguments that Judge Volodymyr Voronko may have ties to notorious lawyer Dmytro Borzykh.
- Judge Voronko previously served as an investigating judge at the Leninskyi Court in Luhansk. At the same time, Borzykh worked in the military prosecutor’s office in Luhansk region. Borzykh is one of Duka’s lawyers in this case.
What is known?
According to Karas, he was given no explanation as to why the hearing was to be held behind closed doors.
"As the prosecution, I had no choice but to seek the investigating judge’s recusal. The motion must now be automatically assigned to another investigating judge, who must determine whether there are grounds for recusing this judge.
At present, I have no reasonable explanation for the restrictions on the right to a public and open hearing of the motion to impose a pre-trial measure," he said.
Karas also described what happened during the search at Duka’s home.
"We tried to conduct a search. The suspect and his personal security, as they call it — armed individuals — chambered rounds, aimed laser sights at NABU officers and prevented the execution of the investigating judge’s search warrant.
All of this went on for two hours. During that time, the individual was destroying physical evidence, including mobile phones, with an axe," he added.
Background
As previously reported, the HACC hearing in the case of SBU General Serhii Duka was divided into closed and open portions. The defense also sought the prosecutor’s recusal.
