Odesa Bar Association is headed by the defense counsel of the accused in the murder in Loschynivka

The Odesa branch of the Ukrainian Advocates' Association is headed by Andriy Leshchenko, a lawyer and Council of Europe expert known as the defense attorney of a man convicted of murdering a girl in the village of Loschynivka.

According to the Bar Association, Andriy Leshchenko has more than 17 years of legal practice, specializing in international law and human rights, WCC, criminal, anti-corruption, commercial and administrative law.

In his new role as the Head of the Odesa Branch of the Ukrainian Advocates' Association, Andrii Leshchenko plans to

• intensify professional and educational activities for the region's attorneys;
• expand opportunities for exchange of experience and cooperation between colleagues
• promote the role of the bar in protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens.

At present, Andriy Leshchenko continues to defend the interests of Mykhailo Chobotar, convicted of murder in Loschynivka. The lawyer is confident that his client is innocent. The fact is that in November 2020, the chairman of the judicial board of the Primorskyi Court, Viktor Ivanov, announced the conclusion of a repeated forensic medical examination, which was ordered by the Primorskyi Court a year earlier at the request of the defense lawyer. This conclusion confirmed the alibi of the accused.

The appeal has been pending in the Mykolaiv Court of Appeal for almost two years, with regular postponements.

The case was transferred to Mykolaiv because the panel of judges of the Odesa Court of Appeal, which considered the appeal on September 22, 2023, recused themselves.

In November 2022, the European Court of Human Rights recognized Ukraine's violation of the European Convention on Inadequate Conditions of Detention of Mykhailo Chobotar, accused of murdering a girl in the village of Loschynivka, Izmail district, Odesa region. Among other things, it was about the excessive duration of detention and the lack of compensation for illegal detention. The decision was not enforced, and because of this, in June 2023, the lawyer filed a motion to disqualify two judges, but the panel refused to grant the motion.

Кирило Бойко