Lazarenko arrested by Swiss authorities (12/13/98)

Lazarenko arrested by Swiss authorities

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Pavlo Lazarenko, former prime minister of Ukraine and current national deputy, was arrested by Swiss authorities on December 3 and is being held in a Geneva jail as Swiss prosecutors prepare to charge him with money laundering.

Swiss Customs officials detained Mr. Lazarenko on the French-Swiss border near Basel, Switzerland, after he attempted to enter the country with a Panamanian passport. He was traveling from Brussels, Belgium, where he had attended a meeting of the European Commission's Parliamentary Assembly as a member of the Ukrainian delegation. He had left the official delegation after the meeting and was returning to Kyiv by private automobile.

Some news sources have stated that the former prime minister was carrying as many as eight passports at the time of his arrest.

Mr. Lazarenko is currently being held in Geneva until a determination is made by Swiss authorities whether he can be freed on bond. On December 9 the Ukrainian national deputy's Swiss attorney, Paul Gully-Hart, suggested that his client was ready to put up $3 million for his release. A December 8 bond hearing was rescheduled for December 11, when the Geneva investigative judge in charge of the case, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, returns from Kyiv, where he is concluding an investigation into Mr. Lazarenko's financial activities.

If Mr. Lazarenko is not allowed bond, he could remain locked up in Switzerland for up to three months as the judicial process proceeds.

The arrest of Ukraine's most controversial politician and perhaps its richest citizen, has incensed politicians associated with the Hromada Party that Mr. Lazarenko leads, who have accused the Ukrainian government of failing to come to the former prime minister's aid and of complicity in his arrest.

National Deputy Stanislav Safronov of the Hromada Party said the arrest of his party's leader was a political act by the Kuchma administration to discredit a political adversary and clear the president's path to re-election. Presidential elections in Ukraine are scheduled for October 1999.

"This was done to destroy perhaps the single strongest opposition in Ukraine," said Mr. Safronov.

Fellow Hromada Party member Tatianna Zadorozhna suggested that the Swiss investigative judge is in Kyiv, not to investigate Mr. Lazarenko, but to consult with the Kuchma government on how to proceed. "It was interesting to see the judge enter the Presidential Administration building through the doors reserved for heads of state," said Ms. Zadorozhna. She said that the actions of Swiss officials "are without precedent in the history of Switzerland."

Ms. Zadorozhna also said that, contrary to official information, Mr. Lazarenko showed a Ukrainian passport at the Swiss border, and that the Panamanian travel document was found on his person afterward. Asked how he had obtained such a passport, she replied, "Panama extends passports as a means of developing revenue for its country."

She accused Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs of neglecting to file a protest against the arrest of a prominent Ukrainian leader or beginning extradition proceedings, and of failing to meet with Mr. Lazarenko in his jail cell. Mr. Zadorozhna also said that she was told by the Swiss ambassador in Kyiv that Mr. Lazarenko was detained strictly at the request of Ukrainian government authorities.

Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry categorically rejected accusations that it had failed to concern itself with Mr. Lazarenko's situation on December 8. "Our ability to help is complicated by the fact that in reality the Panamanian passport rules at the moment, and because Mr. Lazarenko has refused to communicate with us," said Oleksander Maidannyk, vice minister of foreign affairs. He said that the ministry "must act according to law, not according to emotions."

In an effort to appease the Hromada Party and Lazarenko supporters, who demonstrated before the Swiss Embassy and outside the Verkhovna Rada early in the week to demand the release of Mr. Lazarenko, Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk sent an official explanation for the ministry's actions to the Hromada Party on December 9.

Viktor Kiryk, head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Consular Division, explained that Mr. Lazarenko could have been carrying as many as eight passports when he was detained, but that was not unusual or unlawful for a politician, especially one with Mr. Lazarenko's past and current positions. High-ranking government officials and politicians who travel often are given several passports to simplify the process of obtaining visas from several countries concurrently, explained Mr. Kiryk.

Rumors, which have persisted since Mr. Lazarenko was relieved of his duties as prime minister by President Leonid Kuchma in July 1997, that he held illegal Swiss bank accounts, to which he transferred money taken from government coffers, have never been substantiated.

However, Ukraine's Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko has said more than once that if Ukraine's Parliament would vote to remove Mr. Lazarenko's criminal immunity, he would detail the charges to be leveled at the Hromada leader.

Mr. Lazarenko has carried on a high- profile attack on the policies of the Kuchma administration since he was sacked by President Kuchma as head of government for failing to move on reforms and being lax on corruption. In what many press-monitoring organizations consider attempts to stifle the Lazarenko-led opposition, several newspapers with connections to Mr. Lazarenko and his Hromada Party have been shut down or hauled into court on dubious charges.

The former prime minister, once a close political ally of Mr. Kuchma, has suggested that, should he ever face criminal prosecution in Ukraine, he would reveal information on the illegal financial dealings of other top Ukrainian political leaders.

In recent months Ukrainian officials turned to Swiss banking authorities with requests to determine whether any Lazarenko-controlled bank accounts exist in Switzerland. According to the Kyiv Post, Swiss federal police spokesperson Folco Galli confirmed on December 4 that some 20 such requests had been made since February 1997 before Swiss authorities discovered and froze the accounts.

Mr. Galli said that some documents had already been turned over to Ukrainian officials and that they were all "tied to criminal proceedings against Mr. Lazarenko and other figures."

Although the Swiss government has refused to reveal the amounts held in the accounts discovered, Swiss newspapers have reported figures ranging from $20 to $40 million, according to several Ukrainian news sources.

No one has given a verifiable reason for why Mr. Lazarenko decided to travel to Switzerland when he did. Among the rumors printed in the Kyiv press are that he was going to salvage what money he could from his accounts, while another rumor suggests that he was traveling there to meet with Sergei Mykhailov, a Moscow mafia kingpin, who is on trial in Geneva on racketeering charges. Mr. Mykhailov, who hails from the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, as does Mr. Lazarenko, was allegedly carrying a document identifying him as an aide to Mr. Lazarenko at the time of his arrest. None of the allegations have been confirmed.

Mr. Safronov of the Hromada Party said that all the rumors are unfounded. "Everything being said about illegal money deposits and connections to Mykhailov is all insinuations," said Mr. Safronov.

Because Mr. Lazarenko was officially out of Ukraine on parliamentary business, questions have been raised as to whether he carries international diplomatic immunity.

Although his immunity from criminal prosecution as a member of the Verkhovna Rada does not hold in a foreign country, his status as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe offers some protection. To claim diplomatic immunity as a delegate of the Parliamentary Assembly Mr. Lazarenko would have to show that he was arrested for something he did or said directly related to his work for the European legislative body.

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