KYIV, Feb. 13 (AP) - Two Ukrainian lawmakers known for fighting corruption launched an investigation Thursday into the death of a close associate in a car accident, suspecting that foul play might be involved.
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The suspicions reflect the climate of mistrust in Ukraine in the wake of scandals, the deaths of several journalists in murky circumstances and the deaths of numerous well-known figures in car accidents.
Yuriy Karmazin, head of parliament’s committee fighting corruption and organized crime vowed to “personally verify” the circumstances leading to the death of former lawmaker and anti-corruption activist Anatoly Yermak.
Yermak, 48, was killed near Polohy, about 620 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, on Tuesday when a car he was in crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a truck, the Fakty newspaper reported. His brother Mykola, who was driving, also died in the crash but Yermak’s 24-year old son, Oleksandr, survived in critical condition.
Karmazin said he doubts the crash “resulted from a senseless accident.”
However, officials said the stretch of road where the accident occurred was covered with ice.
“There are no grounds for any explanation other than a traffic accident,” Interior Minister Yury Smirnov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. However, he added that a criminal investigation has been opened.
Lawmaker Hrihory Omelchenko, a close associate of Yermak, also said he was skeptical that ice caused the accident, saying his colleague had traveled the road “hundreds of times.” Omelchenko arranged for an independent team of investigators to visit the scene.
Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker deeply involved in probing the deaths of several high-profile journalists, urged the Prosecutor’s Office to consider Yermak’s death a “conventional political murder”. “Whenever a public figure dies who fought against authorities … , the main assumption should be that it was premeditated,” he said.
Numerous well-known public figures have died in car accidents in recent years, leading many Ukrainians to speculate that the accidents were arranged to eliminate key sources of evidence that could incriminate corrupt officials.
Yermak, who worked in the KGB and Ukraine’s post-Soviet security service before being elected as a lawmaker in 1994, crusaded against high-level corruption in his two terms in parliament. He led probes into officials selling tanks to the Taliban, money laundering, and military efforts to cover up evidence in the deadly crash of a Russian airliner that was hit by a stray Ukrainian missile.
