Horrific sex crimes or just sleazy politics?
Victor Ukolov, Serhiy Teriokhin and Ruslan Bohdan

Horrific sex crimes or just sleazy politics?

Oct 22, 2009 at 21:51
Timeline of pedophilia scandal that has shaken the nation.

Timeline of pedophilia scandal that has shaken Ukraine before Jan. 17 presidential election offers no clear answers to what happened and who is to blame

April 16 – Olena Polyukhovych files a complaint with Kyiv’s Dniprovskiy district police office, alleging her husband, Dmytro Polyukhovych, molested their two children that the couple had adopted years earlier, a 9-year old girl and a 12-year old boy.

April 23 – Television editor Dmytro Polyukhovych appeals for help to a Kyiv-based human rights organization, the International League for Protection of Rights. He said his wife had cheated on him with another man, was blackmailing him demanding ownership over their Kyiv apartment and other property. He said his wife, Olena Polyukhovych, and her boyfriend, Artem Degtyaryov, were preparing to wage a public smear campaign, falsely accusing him of molesting their children.

April 24 – Police decline to pursue the complaint after talking with the father of the children.

May 1 – Police again decline to open a criminal investigation.

May 10 – Dniprovskiy district prosecutors reverse the decision and open the case.

May 15 – Mother files a second complaint claiming her husband and other people sexually abused her children during a three-year period. She provides law enforcement with an independently made video with testimony of the children and a lie detector test to back her accusations. Lawyer Andriy Tsygankov agrees to represent the interests of the mother of the children.

May 19 – Police close the case again after questioning father.

May 22 – Prosecutors cancel the decision and request additional inquiry.

May 26 – Mother files a more detailed complaint to the police, with a video of children giving a vivid description of the alleged crime. But police expert examination finds “no external bodily damage” in children and denies opening the case.

June 10 – Kyiv’s Dniprovskiy district prosecutor opens a criminal case into the alleged sexual abuse of the two children.

June 22 – Court-ordered medical examination of two children conducted that finds that their internal organs are damaged.

July 23 – Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko receives inquiry from Party of Regions deputy Olena Lukash, transfers the case to city police precinct, and becomes supervisor in the case.

July 24 – Kyiv’s police learn of the possible involvement of Artek camp workers in the alleged abuse, Oleksandr Medvedko, Ukraine’s general prosecutor, said while addressing parliament on Oct. 20.

July 27 – A more detailed expert examination of the children is attached to the case, but details remain undisclosed.

Aug. 3 – General Prosecutor Office receives the case for review. In the meantime, the father’s computer, camera and other evidence is confiscated.

Aug. 4 – Dmytro Polyukhovych sends a letter to law enforcement alleging his wife was blackmailing him with false accusations, with the aim of gaining ownership over their property.

Aug. 14 – Criminal case opened against the father.

Aug. 17 – Police arrest father of the two children.

Aug. 20 – Police question the boy, who says that his father and others sexually abused him and his sister in an apartment in Kyiv and at Artek camp in Crimea. Later it turned out that the property where it had happened is not a part of Artek.

Aug. 21 – Children identify the employees of Artek who allegedly sexually abused them. Camp director Borys Novozhylov has been implicated.

Aug. 26 – Results of the inquiry initiated by Lukash are sent to the Interior Ministry’s top investigation department.

Sept. 9 – Interior Ministry investigators officially examine the computer of the children’s father, Internet connection, question Artek officials, seize evidence at the camp.

Sept. 22 – Hryhoriy Omelchenko, a lawmaker and notorious whistleblower within Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc, sent a statement from the children’s mother to the General Prosecutor Office, in which she implicates one lawmaker, as having taking part in participating in the alleged sexual abuse of her children. The lawmaker implicated in this letter is believed to have been Victor Ukolov, a member of the Tymoshenko bloc.

Oct. 7 – Omelchenko sends parliamentary inquiry about the sexual abuse scandal to President Victor Yushchenko. Omelchenko the same day meets with General Prosecutor Office chief Oleksandr Medvedko. Also on this day, the children’s mother sends another statement to prosecutors, where she implicates two more lawmakers from the Tymoshenko Bloc, Serhiy Teriokhin and Ruslan Bohdan. Prosecutors say they received this letter from her on Oct. 13.

Oct. 12 – Case transferred to the General Prosecutor Office. On the same day, Party of Regions lawmaker Vadym Kolesnichenko issues a statement expressing concern about the case and said the mother had approached him for help, but her lawyers deny this. Asked by the Kyiv Post about this discrepancy, Kolesnichenko asked: “Does it really matter at this stage who gave me what, given that the investigation has finally started?”

Oct. 13 – Copy of deputy inquiry by Hryhoriy Omelchenko appears on http://from-ua.com website.

Oct. 13 – Interior Ministry receives inquiry from parliament’s Party of Regions about the involvement of Tymoshenko bloc lawmakers in the alleged sexual abuse.

Oct. 14 – General Prosecutor Office approves search warrant request by Interior Ministry involving Artek officials after examining the case for more than a month.

Oct. 15 – Boy and girl are questioned by police about sexual abuse by their father and others who are implicated, including Artek employees. Interior Ministry receives an official testimony about the alleged involvement of parliament deputies in the abuse.

Oct. 16-17 – Investigators ask boy to identify Kyiv apartment where he and his sister were allegedly sexually abused. The boy’s statements are confused and he fails to recognize the flat.

Oct. 19 – Start of presidential election campaign. Two Tymoshenko lawmakers – Serhiy Teriokhin and Victor Ukolov – were questioned by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and prosecutors in the child sex molestation case.

Oct. 20 (12:30) – Mother’s lawyer, Andriy Tsygankov, meets with two Tymoshenko faction deputies, Taras Solovyov and Ruslan Bohdan, to discuss the case.

Oct. 20 – The police start to pursue three theories: that the children were abused by their father; that they were abused by their father and accomplices; and that some evidence was fabricated with the purpose of blackmailing those implicated.

Oct. 20 (16:30) – Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko says police “in the last few days” documented attempt by mother’s lawyer to blackmail deputies implicated in the alleged sexual abuse and extort $2 million.

Oct. 21 – Tsygankov denies blackmail attempt, says meeting with deputies was held at their request. Tsygankov’s assistant claims police conducted a search at the apartment of Valery Konovalov, another lawyer representing Olena Polyukhovych.

Oct. 22 – Tymoshenko bloc lawmaker Bohdan denies offering Tsygankov a bribe or arranging to meet him. Hryhoriy Omelchenko is expeleld from their faction.

Oct. 22 – Olena Polyukhovych asks Medvedko to hold Interior Minister Lutsenko criminally responsible for publicizing information about the adoption of her children.