Victor Lozinsky
New details have emerged about the attempt by former MP Viktor Lozinsky, convicted of murder, to gain freedom. According to court documents published in the Unified Register of Court Decisions, an entire operation was orchestrated to secure his release, involving a district judge, the regional prosecutor, and even a postman.
According to Pervaya Instantsia (First Instance), Viktor Lozinsky was convicted of murder four years ago. As his case progressed through the courts, his sentence was reduced from 15 to 10 years. However, he had no intention of serving even that long. Last summer, a scandal erupted when it was revealed that the court had released Lozinsky due to health reasons. As it later emerged, the former deputy's release had been preceded by extensive preparations, beginning in the midst of the presidential election campaign in May 2014. However, even amid Russia's growing aggression and the presidential election, the controversial politician's release from prison could not be concealed.
Currently on trial in the "early release of Lozinsky" case are the chairman of the Boryspil City and District Court of the Kyiv region, Serhiy Voznyuk, former prosecutor of the Kyiv region, Volodymyr Babenko, the first deputy prosecutor of the Kyiv region, the head of the department of the Kyiv region prosecutor's office, and the deputy head of the Boryspil post office of Postal Service Center No. 3.
The investigation into the company began on June 12, 2014, after Lozinsky's release sparked a media storm.
According to court and criminal records, this is what was happening behind the scenes.
As is known, on June 3, 2014, a judge of the Boryspil City District Court in the Kyiv Region released Lozinskyi from further imprisonment due to illness through an unjust decision. Investigators discovered that long before that day, in the first half of 2014, the Boryspil City District Court judge and the First Deputy Prosecutor of the Kyiv Region had conspired to falsify the court's decision, ensuring its entry into force. To do so, the prosecutor had to turn a blind eye to the court's unlawful decision and also agreed not to file an appeal.
To carry out a simple plan, the regional deputy prosecutor recruited his subordinate, the head of the department for overseeing compliance with laws during the execution of court decisions in criminal proceedings, as an accomplice in late May and early June. He "asked" him not to object during the trial to the judge's patently unjust decision to release a criminal due to illness. To avoid complicating relations with his superiors, the deputy agreed. The first part of the plan succeeded. The court's decision entered into force on June 11, 2014, and on the same day, Lozinsky was released from the Boryspil penal colony. Everything went according to plan: the prosecutor's office failed to file an appeal and lost its chance to challenge the former deputy's release.
However, the illegal release caused significant public outcry and deep indignation in society.
On June 11, 2014, the Kyiv Oblast Prosecutor held a meeting with the First Deputy, heads of departments of the Oblast Prosecutor's Office, and the Boryspil Interdistrict Prosecutor, at which he reported that President Petro Poroshenko had demanded that then-Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema verify the legality of the court decision to release Lozinsky, as well as the legality of the prosecutors' actions, and take appropriate action.
To conceal the crime, it was decided at this meeting to fake the filing of an appeal. To do this, prosecutors were required to enter false data into the automated system of the Unified System of Statistics and Analysis of the Work of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, forging an official document—the aforementioned appeal. They were also required to trick a postal worker into forging a postal envelope with a postmark and the "correct" date.
On the night of June 11-12, the appeal was "entered" into the electronic system with the backdated date of June 10. All that was left was to forge an envelope and issue it with the same backdated date at the post office. To accomplish this, at almost 2:00 a.m., the prosecutor met with the deputy head of the Boryspil post office of Postal Service Center No. 3. The postman agreed to the meeting and stamped the prosecutor's envelope with the required date.
By a decree of the Deputy Prosecutor General dated July 14, 2014, the pre-trial investigation was assigned to the Investigative Department of the Directorate for Supervision of Compliance with Laws in the Military Sphere of the Prosecutor General's Office.
The pre-trial investigation was carried out on suspicion of a judge of the Boryspil City and District Court in committing a crime (under Part 2 of Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), suspicion of the head of the department of the prosecutor's office of the Kiev region (under Part 5 of Article 27 and Part 2 of Article 375; Part 1 of Article 366; Part 1 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), suspicion of the deputy head of the Boryspil post office of postal center No. 3 (under Part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), suspicion of the prosecutor of the Kyiv region (under Part 3 of Article 27 and Part 1 of Article 361; Part 27 and Part 1 of Article 366; Part 27, Part 4 of Article 27 and Part 1 of Article 366; Part 1 of Article 396; Part 2 of Article 383 Criminal Code) and on suspicion of the deputy prosecutor of the Kyiv region (under Part 5 of Article 27 and Part 2 of Article 375, Part 1 of Article 361, Part 1 of Article 366, Part 4 of Article 27 and Part 1 of Article 366, Part 2 of Article 383 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
As a reminder, on June 12, law enforcement detained Lozinsky near Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region and returned him to prison. On June 24, 2014, the Kyiv Regional Court of Appeals overturned the first-instance decision to release the former MP. Earlier, "Prokurorskaya Pravda" reported that Babenko had been notified of suspicion regarding the illegal release of former MP Viktor Lozinsky from prison and had been placed on the nationwide wanted list. The lawyer for the former Kyiv region prosecutor, Oleksiy Shekhovtsov, denies any involvement by the lawyer in the former MP's illegal release.
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