Verkhovna Rada deputy belonging to the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Serhiy Leshchenko has said businessman and associate of former disgraced President Viktor Yanukovych Yuri Ivaniushchenko has been taken off the international wanted list because of a ruling by the Kyiv Court of Appeals.
“The criminal affairs bureau of the Kyiv Court of Appeals on August 22 took Ivaniushchenko off the wanted list. Again. This individual is free to travel wherever he wants now,” Leshchenko said during a press briefing in parliament on Sept. 8.
The MP said according to Ukraine’s Criminal Procedural Code “the decision of a court on searching for a suspect” wanted by Interpol “cannot be appealed.”
Leshchenko said this is the third court in Kyiv that has without reason ruled to remove Ivaniushchenko from the wanted list. He said Kyiv’s Solomiansky District Court had already handed down a similar ruling.
“Ivaniushchenko was removed from the wanted list the second time by the infamous judge Chaus, who was put on the wanted list by the Dniprovsky District Court in Kyiv,” said Leshchenko.
The parliament deputy said he is certain that the rulings are a result of “connivance at the very highest levels of government.
“Connivance is what occurs in the presidential administration with the participation of the head of state. Otherwise, such rulings would not be handed down,” Leshchenko said.
As earlier reported, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO) is investigating Invaniushchenko’s alleged participation in a case involving the misuse of funds and illegal enrichment in large scale, pursuant to Part 3 of Article 27 (types of accomplices), Part 5 of Article 191 (embezzlement using official position), Part 3 of Article 368 (accepting a proposal, promise or receiving exorbitant remuneration while an official) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry in January 2015 put Ivaniushchenko on the wanted list. It planed him in May 2015 on Interpol’s international wanted list.
On April 1, 2016 Kyiv’s Dniprovsky District Court revoked a search warrant for Ivaniushchenko, as well as sanctions for his arrest and delivery to a court for determination of pretrial confinement. The PGO later said it would appeal the ruling.
Avakov on April 2 said Interior Ministry would continue looking for Ivaniushchenko and would not obey the disgraceful ruling of the court.
