The names of some of Ukraine’s most despised former officials who served under disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych have disappeared from Interpol’s wanted list.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center noticed the disappearance and expressed dismay that Ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, ex-Health Minister Raisa Bogatyryova, fugitive businessman Serhiy Kurchenko, ex-Finance Minister Yuriy Kolobov and ex-lawmaker Yuriy Ivanyushchenko had apparently been taken off the list on Jan. 22.
“The disappearance of these suspects from the Interpol database may mean only one thing – the cases involving ex-authorities of Yanukovych’s times have successfully been covered up,” Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, wrote on the center’s website.
He demanded that Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and Internal Minister Arsen Avakov provide an explanation.
“Now these monsters can easily enjoy life, for example, on the Cote d’Azur in France,” Shabunin posted on his Facebook.
Interpol reacted quickly to calm the controversy, however.
Basyl Nevolia, the head of Ukraine’s Interpol bureau, said Interpol had only temporarily restricted public access to this information. He said the files are stored in a closed database with limited access for authorized persons.
“Viktor Yanukovych and his lawyer filed a complaint with a request to cancel the international investigation to the court of Lyon (France) and to the Commission of Files Control in Interpol,” Nevolia wrote on the Interior Ministry website. “At the time of the complaint, the General Secretariat of the Commission decided to limit public access to information on the search of Yanukovych.”
Interpol announced 12 people in its wanted list on Jan. 12, 2015, most of them with a red notice (wanted for extradition), almost a year after they fled Ukraine when Yanukovych failed in his attempt to violently disperse EuroMaidan protesters on Kyiv’s Independence Square. Shortly after the revolution, Yanukovych was removed from Interpol’s list because the criminal charges brought against him were politically motivated, according to Interpol.
Avakov announced on his Facebook page that getting former officials placed on the wanted list took nine months. Interpol’s special commission adopted this decision after “argument and explanation, months after the submission of a request from the Interior Ministry, Prosecutor General and the Security Service,” he said.
Currently, only ex-Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov remains to be listed on Interpol’s website for the misappropriation of property.
Withdrawal from the list may prevent the cases from being brought to court, according to the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s lawyer, Denys Svyrydenko. “So, returning the stolen property of Yanukovych, Azarov and other officials of the former government will be impossible,” he said.
Besides Yanukovych and his allies, Interpol removed from its list Ukrtelecom board chairman Heorhiy Dzekon, who is wanted on suspicion of embezzling Hr 220 million state funds for communication lines. Oleksandr Yanukovych, son of the notorious former president, ex-Energy Minister Eduard Stavytskiy, and ex-Revenues and Duties Minister Oleksandr Klymenko were also removed from Interpol’s radar.
Yuriy Kolobov, who served as a finance minister under Yanukovych, was arrested in Spain in March, but so far he hasn’t been extradited. Ukrainian police are searching for him on charges of embezzlement and financial wrongdoing.
