Ukraine's new prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, is trying to end public access to Mezhyhirya, the billion-dollar estate of overthrown Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. But so far, activists and journalists have prevented the action.
Early on June 23 a group of people headed by prosecutor’s investigator Ihor Slobodianik came to the estate to carry out a court order by Kyiv Pechersky District Court, allowing the law enforcement officers to conduct
investigative activities on the whole territory of the mansion that formerly
belonged to Yanukovych.
The investigators were stopped by activists and
journalist who tried to find out the details of planned investigative actions
to be taken in the estate and the grounds for them.
When Yanukovych fled the country on Feb. 22, thousands
of people were able to get in and see how their former president lived. Yanukovych is hiding out in Russia under the protection of President Vladimir Putin. Yanukovych faces murder and corruption charges in Ukraine.
Yanukovych’sestate is now considered the unofficial Museum of Corruption, with the grounds and buildings open for public tours. The 140-hectare estate is like a city within a city, 15 kilometers north of Kyiv, and had its own fleet of cars, luxury boats, golf course, a zoo stocked with exotic animals, a farm, a tennis court and numerous buildings on the complex.
The most expensive tour is the
excursion around the main estate building Honka, where Yanukovych lived. It costs Hr 200. Mezhyhirya commandant
Denys Tarakhkotelyk, a former EuroMaidan activist, says all the money from tickets
go for the maintenance of the mansion.
On Feb. 23 Ukrainian parliament adopted a resolution that returned Yanukovych’s Mezhyhirya estate to the state — Yanukovych had privatized it illegally. The law change obliges the
Cabinet of Ministers to take all the measures needed to ensure the transfer.
Anna Babinets, an investigative journalist and a
member of YanukovychLeaks team that worked on sorting and saving documents from the estate that point to corruption, says prosecutor’s investigator Slobodianik showed a court decision of June 5
allowing a search of Mezhyhirya, but “could not explain why he,
but not a person mentioned in the court decision, came to fulfill it and had no
answer when we inquired about the progress with the documents we already gave
to the prosecutors,” she said.
Some 25,000 documents were found in Mezhyhirya, left by Yanukovych when he fled in a hurry. They have all been uploaded on the Internet, with originals sent to the prosecutor’s
office by the YanukovychLeaks team.
According to Babinets, who came to Mezhihirya the day that Yanukovych fled, prosecutors are now intent on sealing the buildings and closing the territory.
The prosecutor’s office did not have an immediate comment.
Mezhyhirya commandant Tarakhkotelyk says prosecutors tried a week ago to do the same thing, but were thwarted by EuroMaidan activists and local residents.
“The prosecutor’s office representatives told us that they
are going to conduct an investigation and move the residence to the state
balance, but that part looks too shady for us,” Tarakhotelyk says.
“Ukraine’s
Deputy Interior Minister Mykola Velychkovych came to Mezhyhirya and said it
is being guarded by the Interior Ministry and they were not warned by the General
Prosecutor’s Office about any investigative activities,” Babinets wrote on her
Facebook page.
Activists and journalists say they don’t want to interfere with the investigation, but want more transparency about the state’s plans involving Mezhyhirya.
“We saved a lot of
property here and we just want to see a fair transition,” Tarakhkotelyk told the
Kyiv Post.
As of the evening of June 23, both sides agreed to wait for the
Cabinet of Ministers decision.
