OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2010. “ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih” informs that the court hearing on the case of alleged attempted smuggling in Malinovsky district court of Odessa did not take place for the third time. The hearing was again postponed because the representatives of the regional prosecutor’s office did not show up in court and – most important – did not transfer the case materials to the court. The court is basically paralyzed since the judge cannot start considering the case. For the very same reason all the motions by “ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih” are not considered by the court but postponed until the court is in the possession of the case materials. The court hearing is postponed till December 10.

It is worth noting that on December 9 it will be exactly 3 months since the date when the State Customs Service filed an allegation in alleged attempted smuggling.

Rinat Starkov, CEO, “ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih”: “During those 3 months we have been searching for various options to resolve this situation. However all our suggestions regarding possible solutions were consistently turned down. We are most interested in full-scale investigation of the situation. Our interest is to put a full stop in this case and move on to work. We are convinced that we have high chances of winning this case as the allegations made by the State customs service are based on a totally unrealistic reference price. In that regard we do not understand the position of regional prosecutor’s office which is simply ignoring and delaying the case. We are also convinced that the situation when the biggest foreign investor is rejected for the opportunity to defend itself in court, while arrested coal poses a serious threat of fire, is highly damaging for the Ukraine’s image as a country attractive for foreign investment”.