Activist Serhiy Sternenko, suspected of premeditated murder when he was attacked in Odesa in 2018, said that the court has limited the time period for him to familiarize himself with the case files on his charge.
“I was limited in terms of learning the files of the case on my defense against the attack until August 11, 2020. Despite the fact that the investigator has not yet translated the documents from Russian and the lawyers have not gained access to material evidence. The prosecutor and the judge followed Avakov’s instructions [Interior Minister Arsen Avakov] and Venediktova [Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova],” Sternenko wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
He also wrote: “They do this in order to quickly push the case to court and convict me for not dying.”
As reported, on June 11, Sternenko was summoned for questioning by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), where he was notified of a suspicion of intentional murder and unlawful carrying a knife. The case involves events that transpired in 2018 in Odesa, when he was attacked. One of the attackers has passed away. According to investigators, Sternenko’s actions were not only self-defense, since he caught up with one of the people who attacked him and mortally wounded him.
On June 15, Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv remanded Sternenko to a preventive measure in the form of round-the-clock house arrest.
On June 25, Sternenko said that the SBU has completed the investigation into the case and provided access to the materials to the defense side.
