Yanukovych appears for questioning by police, accuses administration of political persecution (06/12/05)

Yanukovych appears for questioning by police, accuses administration of political persecution

by Olga Nuzhinskaya
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych finally showed up for police questioning on June 6 in connection with the alleged mishandling of government funds, but not without taking the opportunity to attack the current administration for what he said was political persecution.

Mr. Yanukovych, who lost the Ukrainian presidential election to Viktor Yushchenko, was summoned to testify as a witness before anti-organized crime investigators about last year government's transfer of 4.8 million hrv ($950,000 U.S.) from the state budget for the overhaul of the airport in his hometown of Donetsk.

He turned up more than half an hour late for his scheduled questioning, entering the police building with his lawyer, Olena Lukash.

"Authorities use such methods to distract society's attention from the growing problems in our country," Mr. Yanukovych told reporters as he entered the building, adding that he considered his summons "a political order."

He emerged after more than three hours of questioning, repeating that he has nothing to fear "because I don't consider myself guilty of anything."

No charges were filed against him, though Mr. Yanukovych acknowledged that he could be summoned again "at any time, on any day."

The former prime minister had ignored two previous summonses, complaining that the first was issued via the media. He didn't explain why he didn't appear for the second summons, but this time Internal Affairs Ministry officials sent the notice to Mr. Yanukovych's lawyer and to the headquarters of his political party, the Party of the Regions.

Mr. Yanukovych lost a bitterly contested presidential election last year after the Ukrainian Supreme Court annulled his victory on the grounds of massive fraud and ordered a revote that was won by Mr. Yushchenko.

President Yushchenko, who was inaugurated in January, has pledged to crack down on corruption and government links to organized crime that plagued the decade-long administration of President Leonid Kuchma.

Mr. Yushchenko has pointed to Donetsk, 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.

In May Ukrainian prosecutors questioned Mr. Yanukovych about the business dealings of Borys Kolesnikov, a jailed regional official from Zakarpattia, but no charges were filed.

The opposition to the Yushchenko administration, whose main figurehead remains Mr. Yanukovych, has repeatedly accused the government of trying to humiliate and intimidate its opponents with the threat of criminal action.

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