A 500 km distance between the court and the place where the accused lives does not constitute a ground for the court to reject the defence lawyer’s motion to commute preventive detention to house arrest, even where a grave crime is involved.

Drozdova & Partners Law Firm’s Senior Partner Mykhailo Honcharov has so convinced a Kharkiv district court contemplating a pre-trial restraining order for a person accused of a grave crime.

“The grounds for commuting the preventive punishment were the woman’s advanced age (60 years) and a chronic disease hindering her detention,” the lawyer said. “But the accused whose case was tried before the court in Kharkiv had her place of permanent residence in Kyiv. The remote distance was invoked by the prosecutor who objected to our arguments.”

However, having analysed the potential risks, having reviewed the available information about the accused, and having heard the arguments of both the defence lawyer and the prosecutor, the court rejected the latter’s motion for extension of the accused’s detention and commuted it to round-the-clock house arrest at her place of residence (Kyiv).