Defence of suspects in “Sheremet case” suggested to question Zelensky and Avakov
The defense of the suspects in the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet wants to question in court the President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov. The lawyers filed a respective motion on October 8, as Suspilne reported.
According to the lawyer of defendant Yulia Kuzmenko, Taras Bezpaly, the suspects' defenders were going to interrogate about 30 people. Besides Volodymyr Zelensky and Arsen Avakov, the list also includes Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko.
“At a number of press briefings, they mentioned some numerous and irrefutable proofs of Kuzmenko, Dugar and Antonenko's involvement in the murder of Pavel Sheremet. We have not seen these evidences before - this is firstly. Secondly, I want to understand how they had got access to the case files at all, although they are not participants in the case and officially do not even have the right to get access to these files, ” Bezpaly explained.
For its part, the prosecution is summoning 263 witnesses to the courtroom, according to prosecutor Mykhailo Tishyn's appeal.
According to Bezpaly's lawyer, the process of questioning witnesses can be long, and it takes at least 15-20 minutes to hear everyone in the courtroom. At the same time, the parties must explain to the court what exactly the witnesses can confirm beforebar and what facts to provide.
“In total, there were 700 witnesses, and it is good thing that they did not demanded 700 to question. We do not know what decision the court will make, but according to the law, the summoning of witnesses must be justified. We cannot assess for now, whether these witnesses are important, because this is not said what exactly they would like these witnesses to confirm or deny. Maybe it's really important, "Bezpaly said.
He also added that the complaint of Andriy Antonenko, defendant in the case, to the European Court of Human Rights, where he is appealing against his detention, would be considered regardless of the process in the Ukrainian court.
As IMI reported, on October 8, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv withdraw one of the three jurors, Yuriy Mykhaylenko, in the case of the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet and replaced him with another one.
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