Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has submitted to the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv written statements from Mykola Siryi and Oleksandr Plakhotnyuk refusing to continue as her defense lawyers due to their inability to provide full defense in light of the lack of time given by the court to review the case file, according to the Official web site of Yulia Tymoshenko.
"This is the third time already that you’re not giving my defense the right to defend me. I have been denied defense in this trial. This isn’t coincidence. After you didn’t give lawyer Vlasenko time to review the case materials and threw him out of the trial, Mykola Tytarenko became my lawyer. But you also gave him just two and a half days to become familiar with the case. Now this applies to my two lawyers Mykola Siryi and Oleksandr Plakhotnyuk. They too weren’t given the opportunity to ensure my full defense. I believe the presiding judge is deliberately denying me my right to defense," Yulia Tymoshenko said today in court.
Mykola Siryi and Oleksandr Plakhotnyuk filed a similar declaration with the court.
"We as Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense lawyers did all we could to demonstrate the absence of a crime in this case against Yulia Tymoshenko. In response, the presiding judge in the case, Rodion Kireyev, denied us the opportunity to become acquainted with the case. As a result, unacceptable conditions for a trial were created. In view of this, we have no right to continue providing the defendant, Yulia Tymoshenko, legal assistance."
Yulia Tymoshenko on numerous occasions had asked the court to uphold the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code that stipulate that a lawyer that has been admitted to a case for the first time be given the time necessary to review the case records. However, Judge Kireyev ruled that three days was enough for Mykola Siryi and Oleksandr Plakhotnyuk to read the 16 volume, 5000-page case file and rejected all motions on this matter.
