The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has again said that it has nothing to do with the disappearance of Palestinian citizen Dirar Abu Sisi from Ukraine.
SBU spokesperson Maryna Ostapenko told Interfax-Ukraine that the SBU asked those who possess any information about these events to testify as part of checks being conducted by the SBU in this case. She said that such a request was linked to the emergence of speculative information about the alleged involvement of SBU employees in this incident.
"We emphasize once again that any provocation affects the establishment of truth. We are asking Ukrainska Pravda journalists and [Boell Foundation representative] Andriy Makarenko to provide comprehensive information to establish the truth in this incident," Ostapenko said.
It was reported earlier that Dirar Abu Sisi, director of a power plant in the Gaza Strip, boarded a Kharkiv-Kyiv train on February 18. Two hours later two men who produced IDs of special services officers took him off the train.
The Palestinian interior ministry sent an official inquiry into the disappearance of Abu Sisi to Ukraine’s interior minister on February 25.
Abu Sisi is married to a Ukrainian and is a father to six children. He spent 12 years in Gaza and tried to get Ukraine’s citizenship.
A number of media reported on March 10 that Abu Sisi was in an Israeli prison. The Israeli authorities officially confirmed this report on March 21.
German magazine Der Spiegel said that the Israeli authorities were trying to obtain from Abu Sisi information on Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit abducted by Hamas militants four years ago.
According to the Israeli media, Israeli prosecutors sent an indictment against Abu Sisi to the Be’er Sheva court on April 4. According to initial reports, he is a member of the Hamas terrorist organization and the main developer of Kassam missiles, as well as anti-tank missiles, in the Gaza Strip.
The Ukrainska Pravda online publication on Monday posted a report about the disappearance of Abu Sisi, in which the SBU is allegedly involved.
According to the publication, Makarenko was the last person who saw Abu Sisi in Ukraine and witnessed how three men took the Palestinian engineer off the train. This was a neighbor of the Palestinian in compartment No. 6 in a wagon of a train that was en route from Kharkiv to Kyiv on February 18.
