In the Self-Defense party’s office in downtown Kyiv, its leader Yuriy Lutsenko is everywhere.
The walls of the narrow corridors are covered with pictures of him as interior minister and as one of the leaders of the momentous 2004 Orange Revolution and other demonstrations.
But his basement office is empty and lifeless, as it has been since he was arrested at the end of 2010. He was sentenced to four years in prison for abuse of office and embezzlement in February.
Sitting in her husband’s office, his wife said she does not expect to see him released soon, despite pressure from the opposition and the West, which sees his prosecution as politically motivated.
“There will be no justice for Lutsenko with the current authorities in power,” Iryna Lutsenko said in an interview this month.
She said much has changed since her husband’s arrest, and things could soon get worse. If an appeals court upholds the sentence, Lutsenko will be stripped of his personal property.
Dressed in a dark business suit and looking a bit tired, Iryna Lutsenko nevertheless gave a firm handshake and a bright smile. But at one point her sadness broke through, and she began crying when talking about her family and her husband.
Since Lutsenko’s arrest, his wife has leaped into the spotlight, defending her husband as his official legal representative in court and giving interviews as well as talking to European Union officials.
There will be no justice for Lutsenko with the current authorities in power,
– Iryna Lutsenko
She says that it was not until Lutsenko went on hunger strike last June, losing nearly 30 kilograms in a few weeks, that EU diplomats started to look closely at his case and asked her for a meeting.
Even though Lutsenko’s health deteriorated rapidly, his wife says that “the sacrifice was justified at the time,” as it helped draw the attention of European diplomats to the case.
Iryna Lutsenko said her husband is constantly taking painkillers and sleeps only two or three hours a day due to diabetes. As a result doctors recently said that he is suffering from “physical and psychological exhaustion,” she said.
She said she is relying on the European Court of Human Rights to bring justice for her husband.
The two-time interior minister was convicted in February for abuse of power for promoting his driver and misspending state funds on a police dinner. Supporters say the evidence was flawed and the judgment politically motivated.
They blame President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies for putting the opposition leader behind bars to neutralize him as a political force, punish him for opposing them and prevent him from organizing protests. Yanukovych denies the allegations.
Iryna Lutsenko said that as her husband’s legal representative she met with Judge Serhiy Vovk last July to get his permission to take her husband to the hospital for treatment. In that meeting, she claimed that the judge told her there was nothing criminal in the evidence against Lutsenko.
She also said that Vovk suggested to her that he was influenced from above.
Judge Vovk did not respond to a request for comment.
Iryna Lutsenko also complained that police generals who worked with Lutsenko in the Interior Ministry did not step in to help her husband by using their connections and talking to prosecutors. “They were too scared,” she said.
Who did help, she said, were a close circle of friends who supported the family both morally and financially by covering the bills for Lutsenko’s lawyers. She declined to give their names, saying they are not politicians. She said the only way to influence the authorities now is to speak up. “People should not be silent,” she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com
