(AP) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko provided blood samples for new tests of the massive dioxin poisoning he suffered during last year’s presidential campaign, his spokeswoman said Nov. 10.
Irina Gerashchenko said Yushchenko provided one sample on Nov. 9 and two more Nov. 10. The tests will be carried out in three foreign countries, said Gerashchenko, refusing to identify the countries until the tests are over.
Yushchenko fell ill last year during the presidential election, and after treatment in Austria was diagnosed as having suffered massive dioxin poisoning. He has called the poisoning an assassination attempt. It knocked him off the campaign trail for weeks, and left his face severely pockmarked.
No one has been charged in connection with the poisoning, although Yushchenko continues to maintain that those responsible will face justice and that the investigation is proceeding.
In September, former Security Service head Oleksandr Turchinov charged that Yushchenko’s poisoning had not been proven because the president kept putting off tests in Ukraine.
Under Ukrainian law, tests must be conducted in Ukraine, or overseen by Ukrainian investigators to be considered valid, necessitating the new analyses. But local laboratories are incapable of conducting the examinations, so investigators asked foreign laboratories for help.
