Oleksandr YELIASHKEVYCH made a startling statement:

The parliamentary candidate in a majority constituency in Obolonsky district of Kyiv Oleksandr Yeliashkevych is withdrawing his candidacy from the parliamentary election. In the declaration given to our edition the Member of Parliament of two convocations informs that he has to withdraw his candidacy “because of the threat to his life still coming from Leonid Kuchma.” In his declaration Yeliashkevych emphasizes that he “even was not able to start his election campaign.”

In 2002 he had to leave Ukraine. He is the only Ukrainian politician who got political asylum in the US. The American government acknowledged the danger to his life coming from Kuchma and his environment. In 2000 an attempt to assassinate Yeliashkevych was made and Yeliashkevych immediately declared that the then president Leonid Kuchma had ordered this crime.

Below is the complete declaration by Oleksandr Yeliashkevych.

“Central Election Committee

“Yeliashkevych Oleksandr Serhiiovych

“Unfortunately, over the past 12 years Ukraine has not been executing numerous decisions by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly concerning the investigation of the attempt on my life committed in 2000. I remind that the attempt was organized by the then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. This is the conclusion of the investigation committee at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the fourth convocation.

“The fact that my life was threatened directly by Leonid Kuchma was acknowledged by the US, where I got the political asylum in 2002. The investigation of the abovementioned crime is constantly monitored by PACE. However, this case has been frozen in Ukraine owing to the Kuchma family’s efforts. Having enough money, he and his family influence both the government and the opposition. Besides, the actions and intrigues by Kuchma and some members of his family are openly aimed at undermining Ukraine’s authority on the international arena.

“During a meeting with representatives of the diplomatic corps on October 3, 2012 the President Yanukovych declared that in Ukraine all parliamentary candidates are ‘on equal terms.’ It is not true.

“I am not on equal terms with other parliamentary candidates.

“In view of the threat to my life still coming from Leonid Kuchma I even did not have a possibility to start the election campaign. Considering the current circumstances I find it impossible to risk my life and, what is more, the life of my relatives and my team.

“That is why, I, Yeliashkevych Oleksandr Serhiiovych, parliamentary candidate in the single mandate constituency No. 217, guided by point 1 in the part 4 of article 61 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the parliamentary election’ have to withdraw my candidacy from the parliamentary election.

“I insist that the Central Election Committee passes this declaration to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as a Protector of the Constitution.

“I also insist that the Central Election Committee passes this declaration to the first deputy of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin who publicly declared Kuchma’s involvement into murders.”

October 10, 2012, Yeliashkevych O.S.