Infamous former Tax University of Ukraine rector and alleged bribe-taker Petro Melnyk, who escaped from house arrest on Aug. 9, crossed the border into Belarus on the same day and might still be there, Ukrainian media reports, citing a document from Ukraine’s border guards service.
News
website Gazeta.ua published the document online on Aug. 16, which is said to be
a report from the Ukrainian border guards service stating that Melnyk crossed
into Belarus at 3:15 a.m. on Aug. 9 and through the Gorodyshche border control
station.
According
to Gazeta.ua, Melnyk crossed the border in a car driven by an associate named Petro
Grynevych. Melnyk presented a Ukrainian border guard with the passport of his
brother instead of his own. Because the border guard did not suspect fraud, the
two men were waved through.
According
to the document, Melnyk then entered Belarus by presenting his own passport at
a Belarussian border guards station, since at that time he was not reported
missing and had not yet been placed on an international wanted list.
However,
Belarusian border guards deny that Melnyk is in Belarus. According to Mykhail
But-Gusaim, a spokesperson for the Belarusian border guards service who spoke
to Tyzhden magazine, Melnyk did cross the border but was detained because he
violated the rules of entering the country by entering without a passport.
“He was then handed to Ukrainian border guards,” Tyzhden magazine
quotes But-Gusaim as saying.
Melnyk was placed
on the international wanted list on Aug. 13. On Aug. 9, the same day
prosecutors filed a motion in court to have him put behind bars, Melnyk broke
free of his electronic monitoring bracelet and went missing from his house near
Kyiv where he was under house arrest.
On Aug. 11
the Kyiv Oblast prosecutor’s office said it had launched a criminal case against
the police officers in charge of electronically monitoring Melnyk for official
negligence.
“The
(preliminary) audit found a number of irregularities in the actions of
officials who carry out such control at the remote monitoring station,” reads
the Kyiv Oblast prosecutor’s statement. “In particular, these individuals did
not promptly react to the bracelet’s alarm signal, improperly determined the
cause and circumstances of this, and did not ensure timely action to determine
the location of the person (who was being electronically monitored and under
house arrest).”
The police
officers face between two to five years in prison if found guilty.
The
59-years old Melnyk faces criminal charges for accepting $15,000 to enroll two
students at the Tax University, offenses punishable by up to 10 years in prison
if found guilty.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can
be reached at [email protected].
