Yanukovych called for questioning, but fails to appear (06/05/05)

Yanukovych called for questioning, but fails to appear

by Olga Nuzhinskaya
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Of the group of officials of Ukraine's former administration who have been implicated or are to be questioned in connection with any crimes, none are considered as important as former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Last week Ukrainian police summoned Mr. Yanukovych who lost the presidential election to Viktor Yushchenko, for questioning in connection with alleged mishandling of government funds. However, he failed to appear on Monday, May 30.

According to the Internal Affairs Ministry's website, Mr. Yanukovych was summoned to testify as a witness about alleged illegal government donations amounting to approximately 4.8 million hrv ($950,000 U.S.) for the overhaul of the airport in his hometown, Donetsk, located in eastern Ukraine.

"Yanukovych was summoned through all TV channels," said Valerii Geletei, a police official. "We are waiting for an explanation."

Mr. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions accused police of persecuting the government's political opponents and said that "Yanukovych and his lawyer did not receive a proper subpoena."

"The authorities want to present the opposition as the people's enemy, and they are using the Internet and TV to summon opposition leaders for questioning," the statement said.

Olena Lukash, a Kyiv-based legal expert, described the police's move as "the abuse of power and apparent legal illiteracy of law enforcement bodies."

"Authorities can summon someone only through subpoena and ways and means of delivering it (the suboena) are clearly defined by law," she explained.

Lately, law enforcement officials in Ukraine have summoned persons wanted for questioning via public announcements on television and the Internet.

Earlier this month Ukrainian prosecutors also questioned Mr. Yanukovych over the business dealings of Borys Kolesnikov, a jailed regional official from Zakarpattia, but no charges were brought.

Mr. Yanukovych, who heads opposition Party of the Regions, earlier described his appearance before the investigators as "political persecution" of opposition leaders.

Mr. Yanukovych and Viktor Medvedchuk, a former chief of staff of ex-President Leonid Kuchma, also were summoned to appear as witnesses in a land misappropriation case on Wednesday, June 1, before investigators in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Neither man appeared for the hearing.

President Viktor Yushchenko has pledged to crack down on the corruption and government links to organized crime that plagued former President Kuchma's decade-long tenure.

Mr. Yushchenko has pointed to the Donetsk region, where hostility to him runs highest, as having one of the worst records of corruption.

Investigators have arrested about a dozen regional and local officials over the last two months on suspicion of various crimes ranging from abuse of office and extortion to making death threats and plotting assassinations.

All the officials being sought by the government are allied with Mr. Yanukovych, whose supporters accuse the new government of political persecution.

Taras Chornovil, a key Yanukovych ally, dismissed the arrests and warrants as "well-performed theater" staged for the Ukrainian public as proof that the government is cracking down on the murky dealings of people linked with the former regime.

"First they inform a person about minor accusations, then they give him time to leave the country, and after that they accuse him of major crimes and announce fierce measures against him," Mr. Chornovil commented.

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