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Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 12, 2003
On Thursday the Pechersk District Court released ex-Vice-Prime Minister
Leonid Kozachenko, accused by the GPO of abuse of office, and bribery in
especially large amounts, from detention under the responsibility on MP's.
Lawyer Ihor Usenko informed Ukrainian News about this.
The court have satisfied the lawyers' request about the change of prevention
terms to release from detention under the responsibility of MP's and public
figures, Usenko told.
He added that during the court hearings the representatives of GPO offered
to change the terms of prevention to release on bail.
According to Usenko, at the moment Kozachenko is at home.
As our agency informed, on June 6, the Verkhovna Rada demanded that the
Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Pyskun changes the terms of prevention for
Kozachenko.
In May the GPO finished investigation of the criminal case opened against
Kozachenko in the end of March, accusing him according to articles 364 part
2 (abuse of office) and 368 part 3 (bribery in large amounts).
On March 24 the GPO detained Kozachenko after interrogating him as a witness
in a case of checking the situation on the grain market.
On March 27, the Pechersk District Court sanctioned the arrest of Kozachenko.
From June 3, 2001 till November, 2002 Kozachenko occupied the post of VPM
for agricultural policy.
2. UKRAINE'S WINTER CROPS BADLY DAMAGED
Prime-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1218 gmt 11 Jun 03
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 11, 2003
Moscow, 11 June: Ukraine's winter crops have been damaged on 3.822m
hectares, or 65 per cent of the planted area, the State Statistics Committee
said on Wednesday [11 June].
The major damage was registered in Dnepropetrovsk Region (93.2 per cent of
the area), Mykolayiv Region (92.6 per cent) and Poltava Region (84.4 per
cent). The crops were killed by severe frosts last winter, as well as ice
crust in spring.
Winter crops were planted last year on 5.872m hectares, down 14.4 per cent
on the previous year.
The Agrarian Policy Ministry expects this year's grain harvest to decline to
25-27m tonnes due to the damage, from 38.7m in 2002. The US Department of
Agriculture forecasts the Ukrainian harvest at 27.5m, including 9.5m tonnes
of wheat, a drop from 20.55m last year.
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