Ukraine’s prosecutors detained Volodymyr Medianyk, a former lawmaker in ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko announced on his Facebook page on Aug. 7.
Without specifically stating the charges, Lutsenko said that Medianyk’s arrest is part of the investigation against another Yanukovych ally and former leader of the Party of Regions faction in parliament, Oleksandr Yefremov.
The former Party of Regions official was arrested on July 30 on charges of inciting separatism in eastern Ukraine, for which he faces a prison term ranging from seven to 12 years if convicted.
Yefremov has denied the charges against him. Medianyk’s representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Volodymyr Landyk, another ex-Party of Regions member from Luhansk, claimed in an interview with Channel 112 that Yefremov was helping the separatists take over administrative buildings in Luhansk Oblast in March 2014. Landyk said he is ready to testify against Yefremov in court.
Previously Yefremov was charged last year with inciting ethnic hatred and power abuse, but the charges were later removed.
The probes were launched amid rising public pressure on Lutsenko, who was appointed general prosecutor in May, to fight Ukraine’s endemic corruption, a task his predecessors failed to accomplish.
On Aug. 8 Pechersk court in Kyiv is scheduled to decide whether to keep Medianyk behind bars during the investigation.
Like Yefremov, Medianyk is also a native of Luhansk, a city currently controlled by Kremlin-backed militants. He used to be lawmaker in the Luhansk local city council. In 2005, he was a member of Nasha Ukraina (Our Ukraine), the party of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
In 2010, after Yanukovych was elected president, Medianyk was elected to Luhansk city council on the communist party ballot, but in 2012 he joined Party of Regions and as its member was elected to the parliament that year.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
