On February 20, 2017, V. Stoliarchuk, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine, declared Oleh Veremiienko as a suspect in resisting a law enforcement officer (Part 2 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and committing impact on a law enforcement officer (Part 1, Art. 343 of CCU).
Lawyer Veremiienko is accused that he, defending his client during the search, tried to prevent the illegal actions of the investigator and after unsuccessful attempts, he called the police.
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union has decided to support this case and to follow its development because it violates a number of important issues related to the possibility of defense (lawyers) to perform their professional duties without risk to be subject to unreasonable harassment by law enforcement authorities.
Lawyer Veremiienko filed the application about the crime committed by the investigator, but it has not been investigated. We believe that to achieve the objective investigation, it should not only be decided on the lawfulness of Lawyer Veremiienko but the legality of actions by the investigators during the search, which caused the actions of the lawyer.