More information emerged today about the court proceedings stopping the formal appointment of Yury Lystenko who was elected Rector of Donetsk National University [DNU]  on 10 December in a competition with the candidate clearly favoured by the leadership of the Ministry of Education.  Kateryna Kutnya, the lawyer representing Professor Lysenko and his wife Tetyana Lev, stated today that the Kyiv District Administrative Court has prohibited the Ministry of Education from signing a contract with the newly elected Rector.  This is due to court proceedings brought by Oleksandr Korystin who asserts that he put forward his candidacy and it was not considered.

As reported earlier in the week, Professor Lysenko totally denies this and asserts that none of the staff even know who Korystin is.  The former Rector, dismissed by the Minister of Education in September, is also adamant that there was a fair competition between two candidates.

The election took place on 10 December and the confirmation from the Ministry should have taken place at the beginning of the following week.

Instead last week there were a number of searches carried out of Tetyana Lev’s home and office.  The last search continued through the night into Friday.  On Friday afternoon the Prosecutor’s office finally stated that this was part of a criminal investigation initiated following a report “from the management of the University” on 9 December.

That evening Teytana Lev was assaulted by two men outside her home. They shouted “this is for your husband, bitch!”

Ms Kutnya says that the next hearing is due on 27 December.