Ukraine's ex-interior minister transported to Chernihiv region prison
KYIV. Aug 31 (Interfax) - Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko has been transported to Mena Penal Colony No. 91, located in the Chernihiv region, the People's Self-Defense Party, which is led by Lutsenko, said in a press release.
"A heightened comfort Ford Jayco car escorted by a police convoy pulled away from the remand center. Berkut soldiers were responsible for maintaining public order outside the remand center," the party said.
Lutsenko is expected to arrive at the penal colony before noon, it said.
Ihor Andrushko, an assistant to the Ukrainian State Penitentiary Service chairman, said on Thursday that the former minister would be placed in a prison cell together with three or four specially selected inmates.
Andrushko also said that Lutsenko would be transported to the penal colony at the end of this week or at the beginning of next week.
On February 7, 2012, Kyiv's Pechersky District Court convicted Lutsenko of abuse of office and sentenced him to four years in prison.
On August 17, 2012, the same court also found the ex-minister guilty of negligence during the search for Valentin Davydenko, a driver of the Ukrainian Security Council's former deputy head Volodymyr Satsyuk, giving him a two-year prison term.
After the second sentence was announced, State Prosecutor Viktor Klimenko said that there were no more reasons to keep holding Lutsenko in the remand center, adding that the former minister would soon be transported to a penal colony.
Lutsenko was detained on December 26, 2012.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on July 3 that the decision to remand Lutsenko in custody violated human rights, ordering Ukraine to pay 15,000 euro in moral damages to the former minister.
