Interpol has substantiated by documents that it has stopped the search for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr, Yanukovych’s spokesperson Yuriy Kirasir said.
“Interpol has confirmed by documents that it has ceased to search for former Ukrainian President Yanukovych. The document said that there had been no so-called ‘red notice’ regarding Yanukovych on the database of the agency,” Kirasir wrote on his Facebook page on May 3.
Interpol confirmed that a Red Notice or a Special Notice has had no effect on Yanukovych and there is no data about him on the Interpol database, he said.
Kirasir has also posted on Facebook a photocopy of the relevant Interpol statements regarding Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr Yanukovych.
“This response has been made to a claim by the JHA LLP law firm, which serves (Viktor) Yanukovych’s interests, to announce the data that the former Ukrainian president is not wanted by Interpol. Interpol has thus confirmed the fact that criminal cases against (Viktor) Yanukovych are politically motivated,” the spokesperson said.
At the same time, Interpol has made a decision to remove from its database all the data about Oleksandr Yanukovych, “who has earlier not been placed on the wanted list, but the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has filed requests to Interpol,” he said.
Later on the same day Ukrainian National Police spokesperson Yaroslav Trakalo confirmed in a commentary to the Ukrayinska Pravda online edition that Interpol ceased the search for former President Yanukovych. The Interpol Commission for the Control of Files has filed the relevant data to the National Bureau, he said.
This commission also compelled the Interpol General Secretariat to remove Viktor Yanukovych and all the data about his son Oleksandr from the search database.
The Ukrainian bureau has transferred the obtained data, that is, a copy of the decision made by the Interpol Commission for the Control of Files regarding Yanukovych, to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office as a body of pretrial investigation, Trakalo said.
As to reasons behind such actions, the Interpol police spokesperson said that it can be commented only in the Prosecutor General’s Office.
As reported, Interpol placed Yanukovych on the wanted list at the Ukrainian prosecution service’s request dated Jan. 12, 2015, but as he has appealed a claim regarding a breach of Article 2 and Article 3 of the Interpol Constitution, the Interpol Commission for the Control of Files has suspended access to the data on the Interpol General Secretariat register regarding international search for Yanukovych.
On Jan. 19, head of the Interpol National Central Bureau in Ukraine Vasyl Nevolia said that Interpol could consider the resumption of international search for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at the Commission for the Control of Files meetings on Jan. 26-29.
