You're reading: Prosecutor to check whether Melnychenko recorded face-to-face meeting with Kuchma

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine following an address of lawyers of second Ukrainian President (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma has ordered checks into claims that an illegal recording was made of a face-to-face meeting that took place between the ex-president and a former officer of the State Security Guard of Ukraine, Major Mykola Melnychenko.

"Following a verbal address to the investigator by Kuchma’s lawyers, a check has been ordered, and an answer will be given on its findings," a source in the Prosecutor General’s Office told Interfax-Ukraine.

The source said that according to preliminary data, no mechanisms that could copy or carry any information were found in a watch belonging to Melnychenko, which Kuchma’s lawyers claimed could have been a covert recording device.

Earlier, Kuchma’s lawyers asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to open a criminal case against Melnychenko for possibly attempting to disclose details of the secret the face-to-face meeting that took place on Monday.

"During the face-to-face meeting we had suspicions that Melnychenko was making secret recordings using a special device installed in his watch. Due to this, we made a verbal request to the investigator to open a criminal case under Article 94 of the Criminal and Procedural Code against this person on the basis of the fact that he could have made a secret recording without the permission of the investigator," one of Kuchma’s lawyers, Viktor Petrunenko, said on Tuesday.