You're reading: Kuzmin: If Yushchenko’s poisoning not proved, PGO may open criminal case

If the Prosecutor General's Office proves that there was no attempt to poison Third Ukrainian President (2005-2010) Viktor Yuschenko with dioxin, it may open a criminal case, First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin has said.

"If we establish that there was no attempt to assassinate Viktor Andriyovych, if we have reliable proofs that this was invented, then we will raise an issue of opening a criminal case. But this is possible only if we prove for sure that there was no poisoning. That is why we need [Yuschenko’s] blood sample for additional tests," Kuzmin said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda v Ukraine published on Wednesday.

He added that despite the fact that seven years has passed since the moment of the ex-president’s poisoning, "dioxin in such an amount as found in 2004 will not disappear from the body. If Viktor Andriyovych had it, then it must have remained in his blood," Kuzmin said.

"At the moment, Viktor Yuschenko and his lawyers are thinking over conditions under which he is ready to provide us with his blood samples for the tests. He wants to involve several laboratories, and not only our L. Medved Institute [of Ecohygiene and Toxicology], which was assigned with international accreditation for studies," the first deputy prosecutor general said.

He also said that if Yuschenko does not provide the investigation with his blood samples for tests, then "after certain investigatory actions we will consider a possibility of closing this criminal case."

"By the way, we should not forget that Viktor Yuschenko did not address the law enforcement agencies officially on the poisoning. The case was launched on the basis of reports in the media by one of leaders of Yuschenko’s election headquarters," Kuzmin said.

He added that he does not know where Yuschenko’s previous blood samples of 2004 are, and said that "Yuschenko said that he got rid of it [the test tube with the blood sample]."

It was reported earlier that while a presidential candidate, Yuschenko met with the leadership of the Ukrainian Security Service on September 5, 2004. Soon after that, Yuschenko was taken ill and was taken to a Vienna hospital on September 10. Doctors reportedly said Yuschenko had been poisoned by dioxin about five days before his hospitalization. Yuschenko later underwent a number of tests, and an examination at the end of May 2006 confirmed the presence of a dioxin in his body.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka several times confirmed the PGO’s intention to take an additional sample of Yuschenko’s blood, as part of the investigation in the case. In December 2010 Pshonka assumed that there was no poisoning of Yuschenko in 2004 and said that an additional blood test should be done to uncover the truth.

In January-February 2011, Yuschenko was interrogated at the PGO on the case on his poisoning.

On April 11, Kuzmin said that there was no proof in the case on Yuschenko’s poisoning and stated that no dioxin was found in Yuschenko’s blood.

"If Viktor Andriyovych Yuschenko does not take a blood test, we will have to close the criminal case on his poisoning," Kuzmin said.