Turning the pages back... March 9, 1997 (03/07/99)

Turning the pages back...

March 9, 1997

Roman Woronowycz of our Kyiv Press Bureau reported in a story published on March 9, 1997, that Verkhovna Rada Deputy Yukhym Zviahilskyi, the former prime minister of Ukraine under President Leonid Kravchuk who fled to Israel in 1994 amid charges of embezzlement, had returned to Ukraine after the Verkhovna Rada reinstated his legislative immunity from prosecution.

In 1994 Mr. Zviahilskyi was accused by the procurator general of Ukraine of being involved in the sale abroad of 200,000 tons of aviation fuel at rock-bottom prices and of complicity in the disappearance of $25 million. On November 15, 1994, Procurator General Vladyslav Datsiuk, speaking from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada accused the deputy of abuse of office. The Rada then passed a resolution stripping Mr. Zviahilskyi of legislative immunity. By that time, however, Mr. Zviahilskyi was in Tel Aviv, where he had fled two days earlier.

Those charges were never proved, and Mr. Zviahilskyi was never formally charged. Hearing from the Procurator General's Office that the charges had been leveled at Mr. Zviahilskyi without sufficient grounds, but that its investigation would continue, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution on February 12, 1997, to return full legislative authority to the Donetsk deputy. Deputy Stepan Khmara, who then chaired the temporary committee in the Verkhovna Rada that was investigating the charges, said Mr. Zviahilskyi had not been exonerated. "The investigation into Mr. Zviahilskyi's past dealings in Ukraine, in substance, is just beginning," said Mr. Khmara.

Mr. Zviahilskyi's first public appearance after his return to Ukraine was at the Donetsk coal mine where he had been director. He told the miners he would return to his work in the Verkhovna Rada, but would never accept another government position.

Meanwhile, Mr. Zviahilskyi's legal standing as a deputy remained uncertain because he now carried both Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship, and his legislative immunity could still be lifted should evidence surface that he was involved in illegal dealings.

Articles appearing in the press in 1997 suggested the President Leonid Kuchma had arranged the return of Mr. Zviahilskyi to gain the confidence of the Donetsk political clan, which is second in importance only to the Dnipropetrovsk clan from which Mr. Kuchma himself came.

Today Mr. Zviahilskyi continues to serve as a national deputy in the Verkhovna Rada.

Source: "Zviahilskyi returns to Ukraine to face accusations," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, March 9, 1997, Vol. LXV, No. 10.

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