Chief suspect in inquiry into theft of gas sales proceeds placed on nationwide wanted list
KYIV. Aug 10 (Interfax) - A Ukrainian parliamentarian, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, has been placed on the nationwide wanted list, Ukraine's specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office (SACPO) said.
"Onyshchenko has been placed on the all-Ukrainian wanted list," the SACPO told Interfax on Wednesday.
On June 22, the National anti-corruption bureau (NACB) and the SACPO exposed organizers of a scheme to steal money from natural gas production and sales under cooperation contracts with Ukrgasvydobuvannya, which resulted in around 3 billion hryvni losses to the state. On July 5, Verkhovna Rada agreed to the prosecution, apprehension and arrest of its member Onyshchenko, the chief suspect in the scheme.
On July 27, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko signed a notice of suspicion to Onyshchenko who had left Ukraine, having taken advantage of his parliamentarian immunity.
On July 29, Onyshchenko said he was in London, applying for a residence permit and asking for political asylum from the British authorities. On August 2, he failed to show up for his first questioning in Ukraine. Nor did he turn up when summoned for the second time, on August 5.
The second non-show triggered his wanted status, the NACB said. "If he does not show up for a second questioning, we will ask a court for him to be forcibly brought before court and detained," SACPO chief Nazar Kholodnytsky said at the time. Under the procedure, Onyshchenko will be wanted nationwide before being placed on the international wanted list, Kholodnytsky said.
On August 5, Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko said the likelihood of Onyshchenko's extradition from Britain was slightly higher than from Russia where he had fled initially. The prosecutor general stressed that Britain, "with its high legal culture," has never refused to extradite criminals on the basis of well-based documentation.
Last Tuesday the Solomensky court in Kyiv granted the SACPO petition to detain Onyshchenko.
On the morning of August 10 SACPO deputy head, Volodymyr Kryvenko, said that the agency would ask Interpol's Ukrainian office later in the day to arrest Onyshchenko on the basis of the court order for his arrest.
Once Onyshchenko is placed on the nationwide and then international wanted list and arrested by Interpol in Britain, there is a high likelihood of a ruling in favor of his extradition to Ukraine, Lutsenko said on that day.