KIEV, August 15 - RAPSI. The Kiev Court of Appeals commuted the sentence of former Ukrainian Defense Minister, Valery Ivashchenko, and released him, the UNIAN news agency reported on Tuesday.
In April, Ivashchenko was sentenced to five years in prison.
The defense team for the Ukrainian official, in referring to this win, said it would nevertheless review the lawfulness and fairness of the verdict in the trial. Attorney Boris Nechiporenko insists that Ivashchenko is innocent.
Ivashchenko served as the acting defense minister from June 2009 to March 2010, when Yulia Tymoshenko was the prime minister.
The Prosecutor General's Office accused him of illegally selling property belonging to Feodosia Ship and Mechanical Plant. The state losses were estimated at 70.9 million hryvnias ($8.8 million).
Ivashchenko was arrested in August 2010 but has always maintained his innocence.
In January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution in which it expressed its concerns about the prosecution of Ivashchenko along with the prosecution of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko.
In October 2011 Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power. Lutsenko was accused of embezzling state funds and was sentenced to four years in prison in February 2012.
