People from Medvedchuk’s entourage still rule the Ukrainian legal profession – media

Lawyers who collaborated with state traitor Viktor Medvedchuk and shared his pro-Russian ideology continue to maintain influence and important positions in the Ukrainian legal profession. This is discussed in the Bihus.Info material.

In the early 2000s. Medvedchuk became the founder of the Union of Lawyers of Ukraine, and Lydia Izovitova became its vice-president. At the same time, Izovitova has a position in the High Council of Justice, which is responsible for the development of the judiciary.

During the ten years of Izovitova’s “rule” of the National Association and the Bar Council, these organizations did not express any positions regarding state events.

In particular, the National Bar Association of Ukraine in 2014 did not condemn the laws of January 16 and did not express a position about the actions of the Yanukovych regime and the beating of people on the Maidan during the Revolution of Dignity. A group of lawyers signed an Act of No Confidence in the leadership of the National Bar Association of Ukraine.

However, in 2023, on the website of the National Association, Izovitova criticizes a bill registered in the Verkhovna Rada, which proposes to introduce criminal liability for lawyers working in occupied territories, recognizing the legitimacy of occupying authorities.

In addition, Zoya Temnokhudova, a former parliamentary assistant of Viktor Medvedchuk, now holds an important position in the structures of the Ukrainian bar. Temnokhudova is a lawyer from Transcarpathia, as well as a representative of the Transcarpathian Regional Council from PZZHM (formerly known as OPZZH).

The media also pointed to another lawyer – Igor Kirilenko. In the 1990s. he worked for the international law firm BIM, founded by Medvedchuk, and was also a consultant to the Union of Lawyers of Ukraine, then headed by Medvedchuk.

Kirilenko represented Medvedchuk in the courts. In particular, in the case of the ban on the publication of Vakhtang Kipiani’s book, the case of Vasily Stus, in which Medvedchuk did not like to mention him.

In 2020, Kirilenko became a deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the OPZZh party. He is currently a member of the regulatory commission of the Kyiv City Council.

Let us remind you that the media wrote that the former people’s deputy from the banned party OPZH Viktor Medvedchuk, accused in Ukraine of high treason, is trying through the court to recover his Ukrainian passport and remove sanctions by the National Security Council.