You're reading: Yatseniuk says not all criminal cases against Vlasenko closed

The prosecution agencies closed only one criminal case against Serhiy Vlasenko on an appeal of his ex-wife, however, there are a number of other criminal cases against Vlasenko that have not been closed, Leader of the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction Arseniy Yatseniuk has said. 

“The nonsense that they have allegedly closed the criminal case is not true. They closed one criminal case, while other criminal cases are still open,” he said on Wednesday.

Yatseniuk also assumed that the authorities could detain Vlasenko soon.

“They have a tradition to detain people on holidays or before weekends, or during summer vacations – that’s when they arrested [former Ukrainian Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko… [and when they could] arrest Vlasenko,” he said.

On March 5, 2013, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO) reported that the criminal case on non-fulfillment of a court ruling against Serhiy Vlasenko has been closed.

“The criminal proceeding on [Vlasenko’s ex-wife Natalia] Okunska’s statement on the non-fulfillment of a court ruling by Vlasenko has been closed due to the absence of evidence of crime. In connection with this, Vlasenko is summoned to the PGO’s Main Department for Investigation of Priority Cases to read the decision,” the press service said.

Earlier on March 5, Vlasenko told journalists that that PGO had summoned him for interrogation as a witness on March 11.

“On March 4 they sent me summon to the PGO for March 11 for an interrogation as a witness on another absurd criminal case,” he said.

In January 2013 Vlasenko stated that he could be detained in the near future. He said that the reason for his detention could be alleged non-fulfillment of court rulings in a civil case by him, as well as his alleged actions classified as assault with intent to rob.

He said that a ruling of Kyiv Pechersky District Court accuses him of non-fulfillment of a court ruling in court disputes between him and his ex-wife Okunska.

Vlasenko also stated that experts of Kyiv Forensic Medicine Bureau tried to falsify evidence in a criminal case against him.

“I mean alleged physical damage allegedly caused by me… Now they are falsifying [a case on] injuries of moderate severity under articles of the Criminal Code,” he said.

In late January 2013 First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin said that the PGO was checking statements by Okunska about an alleged beating of her by her ex-husband.

Kuzmin said that Vlasenko’s ex-wife had filed several appeals saying that he used physical force against her in the presence of their children and other people.

On March 6, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled to annul Vlasenko’s parliamentary mandate.