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Prosecutors investigate Tymoshenko ally
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Nov. 9 - Yuriy Lutsenko, a former interior minister and a key ally of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, is under investigation by prosecutors for allegedly misspending $5,000 while in office.

Lutsenko, who said the investigation was politically motivated, appealed the move by the prosecutors to open the investigation. He is the second minister from the Tymoshenko government that is investigated for alleged abuse of power.

“I hope that thinking people were left in courts and will act in line with law,” Lutsenko told Channel 5 late Tuesday. “That’s why I appealed the opening of the case.”

If found guilty by the court, Lutsenko faces a jail sentence of between 3 and 8 years, lawyers said.

Lutsenko denied the allegations as politically motivated and said the authorities seek to punish him for his anti-corruption practices when he was the interior minister.

“The leader of the ministry, which employs 300,000 with an annual budget of 8 billion [hryvnias], colludes with his driver in order to steal $5,000 from the state,” Lutsenko said sarcastically. “Don’t you think this is just an absurd?”

There was an increasing number of investigations against opposition figures over the past seven months after Tymoshenko had lost presidential election to Viktor Yanukovych in February.

“Unfortunately, instead of political reforms and promised economic wellbeing the authorities have resorted to political persecution of opposition politicians,” Viacheslav Kyrylenko, the leader of opposition For Ukraine group, said in a statement. “The case against Lutsenko is a political persecution and is part of pressure on politicians that are not afraid to tell the truth.”

A handful of former government officials have been detained on charges of abuse of office.

Last month, Czech authorities detained Ukraine's former Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn on a Ukrainian warrant after he was accused of abuse of office. Danylyshyn, who denies any wrongdoing, is still under detention in the Czech Republic.

Two other senior officials in the last government, the former head of customs and the former acting chief executive of state energy firm Naftogaz, were detained earlier this year in what Tymoshenko has described as "political repressions".

Lutsenko's spokeswoman said the prosecutors allege that the former minister committed fraud when he paid his driver a 40,000 hryvna, or $5,000 bonus.

Tymoshenko lost narrowly to Yanukovych in February in a bitter campaign in which she alleged vote-rigging by his camp.

Since Yanukovych took over, the authorities have questioned both her and her top aides as witnesses in connection with alleged corrupt practices while she was in office. No formal prosecution has been launched against her. Yanukovych has said his government's actions were aimed at punishing those who "had been robbing the country for years" and resisted reforms. (nr/ez)




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