The police have detained 22 people in connection with an incident at the Ukrainian printing company, Interior Ministry Yuriy Lutsenko has said.
The detained persons are being questioned the capital’s Shevchenko district police department.
‘The police detained all 22 people who didn’t have parliamentary immunity," Lutsenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
According to the minister, 18 people said they were assistants and guards of MPs, another two persons said they were representatives of the security service of the printing company. They were charged with administrative violations, including resisting arrest.
Lutsenko said that several days ago the deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine presented a new director at the printing company. After this MPs from the Regions Party claimed that there were alleged attempts of falsification during the production of ballots.
"This is absolute nonsense. The Central Election Commission hadn’t even taken a decision on the completion of the first round and calling the second round of the election, and it hadn’t determined athe form of the ballots: Any possible printing of ballots today or tomorrow is out of the question," the minister said.
Lutsenko said that this weekend a group of MPs invaded the territory of the company and effectively blocked the entrance to the Ukraina printing house, preventing the newly appointed director from entering his office and beginning work. The minister said at 0609 on Monday the police received a report from a representative of the company that unknown persons were interfering with the work of the printing company – 20 people had blocked the entrance.
According to him, the events at the printing company occurred due to commercial interests of one of the MPs from the Regions Party. In particular, this concerns MP Vasyl Hrytsak, who is alleged to be connected to the EDAPS consortium [a company that produces foreign passports for Ukraine].
