At a hearing scheduled in advance today in the case of MP Serhii Kuzminykh, the HACC still could not move on to questioning him. The reason: the defendant had brought in new defense lawyers, who moved to adjourn on the grounds that they needed time to study the case file.

The court was forced to adjourn until September 21 to give the lawyers time to review the case. So the MP's questioning had to be put off.

The court also noted signs that Kuzminykh was abusing his procedural rights. Specifically, with the procedural time limits due to expire — as soon as January 2027 — the MP had set the change of counsel in motion around August 20, yet only today actually announced that he had engaged new lawyers.

Kuzminykh explained this by saying he lives in Zhytomyr and is under house arrest, so he had no way to find a lawyer or meet with one. And lawyers from Kyiv, he said, do not want to travel to Zhytomyr. He managed a confidential consultation with his lawyers only today.

Kuzminykh is charged with trading in influence. The trial keeps dragging on: recusal motions, last-minute adjournment requests, no-shows by the defendant or his counsel, and the like. Over his systematic improper procedural conduct, the court has already applied to Serhii Kuzminykh a compelled appearance, monetary penalties, and even forfeited his bail to the state, changing his preventive measure to round-the-clock house arrest. The problem is systemic — we noted it in our HACC case-monitoring report.