KIEV, July 24 – President Viktor Yushchenko said Thursday that David Zhvania, once one of his closest allies, may have been involved in the poisoning that nearly killed him in September 2004.

Zhvania organized and led Yushchenko, then an opposition presidential candidate, to a meeting with top security service officials on Sept. 5, 2004, where Yushchenko is believed to have been poisoned with the highly toxic substance dioxin.

Zhvania, who had for years declined to be interviewed by prosecutors investigating the case, on Tuesday again refused to answer questions from the investigators. He was so far been viewed as a witness in the case.

Asked if he thought that Zhvania had been involved in the poisoning, Yushchenko said: “I think so.”

“That’s to speak mildly as I want to underline this to maintain balance with the law, the investigators and honest people,” he said at a press conference.

This is the first time that Yushchenko has suggested that Zhvania may have been involved in the poisoning, one of the most mysterious crimes in modern Ukrainian history.

Yushchenko spent several hours at the Prosecutor General’s Office on Monday answering the questions.

Zhvania, now a lawmaker, enjoys immunity from prosecution that allows him to openly challenge the prosecutors. Zhvania called the scheduled interrogation on Tuesday a “show.”

But Oleksiy Donskoy, a member of a team investigating the poisoning, said Zhvania’s refusal to talk on Tuesday had been either pointing to his fears over emerging new circumstances in the case or indicating his direct involvement in the poisoning.

Zhvania was one of Yushchenko’s closest and most trusted allies during the presidential campaign leading to the violent presidential election in November 2004. Yushchenko faced a Kremlin-backed candidate in the race and after the poisoning many people in Ukraine pointed the finger at Russia.

The development comes a week after investigators disclosed that Volodymyr Satsyuk, a former deputy chief of the Ukrainian security service who had hosted the meeting and dinner with Yushchenko on Sept. 5, 2004, was recently granted Russian citizenship. This makes his extradition to Ukraine virtually impossible.

Hours after the dinner at Satsyuk’s dacha, Yushchenko fell ill and by the next day had developed an acute stomach ache.

He was rushed to a Vienna hospital on Sept. 10, later developing pancreatitis and gastrointestinal pain, as well as backache. He also suffered partial nerve paralysis in his face and an inflammation of one inner ear.

About three weeks after his first symptoms, he developed the rough, acne-like rash on his face which is the hallmark of dioxin poisoning.

Tests performed at the Free University in Amsterdam in December 2004 showed the level of dioxin in Yushchenko’s blood was 100,000 units per gram of blood, compared with between 15 and 45 units that is considered to be the norm.

Most of what is known about the health effects of acute dioxin poisoning comes from experiments on animals. Most animals would die from the levels found in Yushchenko in December 2004, scientists have said.

But Zhvania went into spotlight several weeks ago when he had suddenly stated that Yushchenko’s mysterious illness was a simple case of food poisoning. This allegation was rejected by doctors as non-sense.

Toxicology experts said three countries--the US, Britain and Russia--could have actually produced the type of dioxin used to poison Yushchenko.

The US and Britain cooperated with Ukraine’s investigation by providing their samples, which had never matched those found in Yushchenko’s blood.

Russia has refused to cooperate in the investigation for the past three years. Last year Russia suddenly asked Ukraine to submit the formula of dioxin found in Yushchenko’s blood, and said it would check it against its dioxin samples.

The Russians later admitted they used to produce the type of dioxin found in Yushchenko’s blood, but had later discontinued production, according to Ukrainian prosecutors.

Before joining the Yushchenko team in 2001, Zhvania has been involved in highly sensitive business of shipping nuclear wastes from Ukrainian nuclear power plants for disposal to Russia. (tl/ez)