Prosecutor General Calls For Third Test of Melnychenko Tapes
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Sviatoslav Piskun has announced that he can convince the American side that Ukraine did not sell Kolchuga early-warning radar systems to Iraq. “It seems to me that I can convince them,” he said at a press conference on October 22 in connection with his working trip to the USA. According to the Prosecutor General, during meetings with his American colleagues he told them of the measures and methods used by the Prosecutor General’s office to check the accusations made against it. “And they understood that on the legal plane we had done everything that we could.”
Piskun stated that he had asked the USA to carry out a third set of independent tests of the tapes of Major Mykola Melnychenko with the participation of specialists from Germany and Russia. “Thus,” said Piskun, “the situation whereby the Ukrainian side talks of the falsification of the Melnychenko tapes and the USA of their authenticity will be ruled out.” According to the top Prosecutor, in the US he “did not receive a negative response to this proposal.” He stated that the PGO had appealed to the US with a written request “to either provide the original Melnychenko tapes or a notarized copy,” stating that there is no difference between the copy and the original digital version. He noted that this was necessary so that “tomorrow several other details in the tapes do not appear, so that new fragments do not appear mentioning in place of the Kolchuga, for example, some kind of fish.”
At the same time, in Ukraine this week an investigative operational group is expected from the USA to provide assistance with the criminal case into the murder of journalist Heorhy Gongadze. According to Piskun, the Ukrainian investigative operational group had already gone to America, and now an investigative-operational group from America was coming to Ukraine. “They will help in the Gongadze case, with all aspects of the versions we are investigating. They will consult with us,” noted Piskun. Answering a question from journalists of who is behind the Melnychenko recordings, Piskun said “If we uncover the murder of Gongadze, we will ascertain who stands behind Melnychenko.”
The Prosecutor General also brought news from the United States on former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. According to Piskun, once the investigation of the Lazarenko case is completed in this country, Lazarenko might be sentenced for “a small period of time, but not 360 years... The time will come when Lazarenko will be in Ukraine,” announced Piskun. The Prosecutor General noted that the “sum of money brought through the USA by Lazarenko was not so big, and it will not involve a long period of imprisonment... I am sure that his case will be heard in Ukraine.” He also stated that the Lazarenko’s resources which were seized in Antigua would be returned only when “there is a court decision referring to these funds.” At the same time he noted that this might be the decision of any court, “Ukrainian, Russian, or others in relation to this person.” According to Piskun, an international agreement between Antigua, Barbuda, and Ukraine on mutual legal assistance in the investigation of criminal cases, which the Prosecutor General should have signed during his working trip to the USA, would be signed “automatically within a few days.”
In connection with the resonant events of the arrest of the Russian entrepreneur Konstantin Grigorishin, Sviatoslav Piskun said that the PGO would invite several deputies “for questioning” in the case relating to the businessman. “There is such a request, and we will check all requests through investigative means,” said Piskun. He also noted that in relation to the police officers who, according to People’s Deputy Volodymyr Syvkovych, “used physical force against him,” an investigation will be held. “If evidence of a crime is established, they [the arresting officers — Ed.] will be seized and arrested,” he announced.
