Parliament asks law enforcers to investigate arms trading allegations
position lawmaker’s request June 19 for a criminal investigation to be opened into the country’s former security chief and his lawmaker son for allegedly selling arms to Iraq.
Hryhory Omelchenko, a deputy of the opposition faction of ex‑Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, requested that Acting Prosecutor General Mykola Harnyk and Security Service chief Volodymyr Radchenko open a criminal case against Leonid Derkach and his son Andry for “alleged harm to Ukraine’s economy.”
The Derkachs have denied any official role in illegal arms dealings.
Of the 375 deputies present, 161 lawmakers supported the motion, two voted against it and 212 members abstained from voting, according to the parliamentary press service.
Omelchenko based his request on an April interview that Yevhen Marchuk, chief of the National Security and Defense Council, gave to Radio Liberty in which he said that Derkach and his son had “illegal deals that made a colossal loss to the state economy,” according to the Interfax news agency.
Omelchenko also cited remarks by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, who claimed he bugged the office of President Leonid Kuchma and taped conversations that prove the accusations of Derkach’s role in an Iraqi arms deal. Melnychenko received political asylum in the United States.
Kuchma and other officials have strongly denied all the accusations.
This is the second case opened against Derkach and his son. In January, opposition leaders demanded investigations into the Derkachs’ alleged involvement in selling arms to the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan.
The Prosecutor General referred the case to a military investigation team.
Leonid and Andry Derkach, both members of parliament, have immunity from prosecution,during their four‑year term of office.
