The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is investigating an alleged incident at Frankfurt airport involving Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.
“We are following the instructions of the Ukrainian president,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Vasyl Kyrylych told Interfax-Ukraine.
As reported, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has requested Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko start an investigation into reports by the mass media of an incident with Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko in Frankfurt am Main airport.
Yushchenko instructed First Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandohiy to request official information from the German Embassy in Ukraine, the presidential press service reported on Wednesday.
Earlier, several foreign media reported that the German police had arrested Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and several members of the Ukrainian delegation for public drunkenness. The captain of the plane refused to take off with the drunken passengers aboard. In response, Lutsenko took offense, started shouting and “throwing his mobile phone,” the reports said.
The captain called the police, saying that the troublemaker identified himself as Ukraine’s Interior Minister.
The police arrested the drunken passengers. The minister’s son, 19-year-old Oleksandr, resisted arrest and was put in handcuffs.
The Interior Ministry has denied that the incident took place.
On May 4, an Interior Ministry’s delegation was detained in the transit zone of Frankfurt airport during document checks and missed its flight then their plane’s crew refused to take them on board, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Department for Public Relations and International Affairs told Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday. The delegates decided to take the next flight. The Interior Ministry said that there was no drunken conflict and no use of handcuffs.
