It is reported “Public” and “Direct”.
“I still don’t understand what happened in the Kirovohrad court. What the judges did behind closed doors, I don’t understand,” said Lyudmila Kusa, one of Roman Chervinskyi’s lawyers, and added that he was actually kidnapped and taken to an unknown direction.
Instead, lawyer Andriy Yosypov stated that the defenders had applied to the law enforcement agencies with statements both about the abduction and the illegal detention of Chervinskyi.
“As of 18:30, neither we, as defenders, nor Chervinskyi’s wife, nor his family know Chervinskyi’s whereabouts. He was supposed to be released from custody late in the evening on April 19. But as of today, we do not know his whereabouts for sure.” – says Yosypov.
In addition, the lawyer fears that, taking into account numerous successful special operations against Russia, Chervinsky may be secretly handed over to the Russian Federation.
“We had information about the fact that Chervinskyi was wanted in the Russian Federation. And I would very much like not to rush ahead, but I will not exclude that fact, and at least we will check the fact that Chervinskyi could have been kidnapped – this is only as an assumption – to hand over to the enemy,” the lawyer suggests.
Yosypov hopes that they will have a little more information from Monday, when the judicial institution and the law enforcement system will start working.
“I really don’t want to think about the worst, but taking into account Chervinsky’s biography, taking into account the criticism he expressed, the criticism in the Wagnergate case, the criticism of Yermak and Zelensky in the case of the transfer of Tsemakh to the Russian Federation, one of the key witnesses in the case of the Malaysian Boeing shot down over the territory of Ukraine,” the lawyer added.
What is known about the case of Roman Chervinskyi
Roman Chervinskyi is an officer of the Special Operations Forces and a former employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate. He is accused of exceeding his official authority during the attempted hijacking of a Russian military aircraft. The prosecution claims that as a result of his actions, the Russian Federation launched a missile attack on the Kanatove airfield in the Kirovohrad region in July 2022.
According to the case file, Chervinskyi, together with other persons, decided on their own to carry out a special operation – to take possession of an aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The Russian pilot allegedly agreed to the offer to switch to the side of Ukraine. Instead, in the summer of 2022, Russia fired at the Kanatove airfield in the Kirovohrad region.
As a result of the rocket attack, the commander of the military unit was killed and 17 servicemen were injured. Also, 2 fighter jets of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were completely destroyed, and the airstrip, equipment and buildings were damaged.
Roman Chervinskyi was detained, on April 25, 2023, he was remanded in custody for 60 days without bail.
The SBU insists that it opposed this operation and carried it out despite the objections of the special services and without the consent of the relevant state authorities. Chervinsky, on the other hand, stated that all measures within the scope of the operation were authorized by the head of the SBU (at that time – Ivan Bakanov) and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny.
On July 17, the Kyiv Court of Appeals decided to leave Chervinsky’s preventive measure unchanged – the accused was remanded in custody until July 21. At a meeting on July 18, the court extended the term of detention for another two months without the right to bail. On August 30, the hearing in the Chervinskyi case at the Shevchenko court in Kyiv lasted about five hours. The court decided to keep the former spy in custody for another two weeks, until September 15.
On September 12, the prosecutors tried to hold a closed session of the Shevchenko court, but the judge refused. The next day, the court rejected an appeal to extend the intelligence officer’s detention and did not allow the deputies to take him on bail. On September 20, the court adjourned the hearing regarding Chervinsky’s case, and on October 5, it did not consider the appeal regarding the term of his detention. The judges of the Kyiv Court of Appeal announced their self-recusal. On October 10, the judge refused the lawyers to satisfy the complaint that the suspicion against the colonel was unfounded.
On November 20, a hearing was held in the case, but the court did not consider the appeals.
On December 7, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv kept Roman Chervinskyi in custody.
December 20 happened regular session of the Court of Appeal. The suspect’s defense attorneys submitted a motion to the court to call Valery Zaluzhny and a number of commanders of the Armed Forces as witnesses. In addition, the lawyers asked to soften or cancel Roman Chervinskyi’s preventive measure. However, all petitions were rejected, to which Roman Chervinskyi’s lawyer Viktor Vasylyuk said that the judges had violated their oath, had a biased attitude and violated all constitutional rights.
On January 3, the Shevchenkivskiy District Court of Kyiv rejected former intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky’s complaint against the State Bureau of Investigation.
On March 7, it was reported that the Shevchenko Court of Kyiv will continue the consideration of the petition in the case of spy Roman Chervinskyi on March 11.
On March 12, the Shevchenkivskiy District Court of Kyiv heard the petition of the lawyers of the former intelligence officer Roman Chervinskyi to impeach the judge. After that, the case was considered by a new judge – Inna Mikheeva, but she refused the request of the ex-intelligencer’s defenders, and the case is being considered again by the previous judge Andriy Osaulov.
On April 4, during the consideration of the issue of Chervinsky’s preventive measure, the judge of the Court of Appeal announced that he would recuse himself.
On April 5, the Shevchenkiv District Court of Kyiv extended Chervinskyi’s detention for 15 days.
