JERUSALEM, Israel -- A Palestinian engineer who is believed to have been abducted from Ukraine by the Israeli secret service, Mossad, denied he had done anything wrong when he appeared in court on Thursday .
Prosecutors asked the court in Petah Tikva in central Israel to allow the continued detention of Dirar Abu Sisi for five days after which he would be charged. No charges have been made public.
Abu Sisi, who has not been seen since his abduction on 19 February, told the court that he had been abducted and that he denied all allegations against him. Referring to an Israeli solider abducted by Hamas in 2006, he said: "I don't know anything about Gilad Shalit. I don't know anything. I'm an engineer."
Reports suggest Abu Sisi was taken forcibly from a train in Kharkov then flown to Israel. It later emerged that he was being held in Ashqelon prison in southern Israel.
Abu Sisi works as an engineer for a power company in the Gaza Strip and is married to Veronika, a Ukrainian national with whom he has six children. His family said that he was in the Ukraine to apply for citizenship to enable his family to leave Gaza.
While no charges have been made against the engineer, the German magazine Der Spiegel claimed that he was kidnapped because he had knowledge of the whereabouts of Gilad Shalit. However, Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said there was no direct link between Shalit and Abu Sisi.
"He didn't organise the abduction or guard Shalit but he is a person with intimate internal information on Hamas. This has value," he told Israel army radio.
Smadar Ben Natan, Abu Sisi's lawyer, said that she had general knowledge of the charges against her client which were out of proportion to the efforts made to bring him to Israel.
"He is not a member of Hamas. He has a public position in the electricity distribution company. No one has said he is an essential person to any organisation, only that he has information. It's impossible to live in Gaza and not have some knowledge of Hamas," she told the Guardian.
In a telephone conversation made public on Thursday, Noam Shalit, the father of the Israeli soldier held in Gaza, asked Veronika Abu Sisi to help get his son released.
She told him: "Your son is the same as my husband. Your son was kidnapped without foundation and my husband was kidnapped without foundation."
In Kiev, Mohammed al-Assad, the Palestinian envoy in Ukraine, told a news conference that Abu Sisi "was not a member of any organisation".
Describing Abu Sisi's disappearance as a "terrible act of piracy", Assad urged the Ukrainian authorities to put pressure on Israel to ensure his safe return to Ukraine.
"At the moment there is no proof that Mossad officials seized him, but the fact is that he is there," Assad said. "We consider his disappearance and relocation ... as an international crime for which someone must bear responsibility."
The abduction of Abu Sisi happened one year after suspected Mossad agents killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a member of Hamas, in his hotel room in Dubai.
Dubai police issued arrest warrants for at least 26 agents who were travelling with British, Irish and other European passports. It later emerged that some of the passports had been copied from Israeli citizens who had dual nationality.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Record Demand For Euro 2012 Tickets: UEFA
WARSAW, Poland -- Demand for tickets at Euro 2012 has hit a record of more than 12 million, UEFA said Friday, after an application deadline to see the championships in Poland and Ukraine closed.
n a statement, European football's governing body said that a total of 12,149,425 ticket requests had been made by fans worldwide.
"This sets an all-time record for the UEFA European Football Championship," it added, noting that it represented a 17 percent increase on the 2008 edition in Switzerland and Austria.
Demand for tickets traditionally outstrips supply at the quadrennial, 16-nation footballing showcase.
More than 550,000 tickets are available for the general public at Euro 2012. In 2008, 10.4 million people applied for the 300,000 on sale.
To be in with a chance this time, would-be buyers had the whole of March to sign up at a ticket portal on UEFA's website, and were limited to applying for four each.
UEFA has repeatedly underlined that it is the only authorised channel, and that other purported ticket sources could be fronts for rip-off merchants.
From April 19-22, a UEFA lottery will determine the lucky ticket applicants.
UEFA has said Euro 2012 ticket sales are set to generate 100 million euros.
The vast majority -- almost 88 percent -- of ticket applicants were from Poland and Ukraine, it noted Friday.
UEFA underlines that it has taken Poles' and Ukrainians' lower spending power into account.
The average monthly gross salary in Poland is around 800 euros ($1,128), and in Ukraine, just over 200 euros ($282). That compares with the equivalent of 4,000 euros ($5,642) in Switzerland and 2,000 euros ($2,821) in Austria.
The cheapest 2008 ticket was 45 euros ($64). The bottom rung in 2012 is 30 euros ($42).
At 600 euros ($846), the cost of high-end tickets is unchanged.
n a statement, European football's governing body said that a total of 12,149,425 ticket requests had been made by fans worldwide.
"This sets an all-time record for the UEFA European Football Championship," it added, noting that it represented a 17 percent increase on the 2008 edition in Switzerland and Austria.
Demand for tickets traditionally outstrips supply at the quadrennial, 16-nation footballing showcase.
More than 550,000 tickets are available for the general public at Euro 2012. In 2008, 10.4 million people applied for the 300,000 on sale.
To be in with a chance this time, would-be buyers had the whole of March to sign up at a ticket portal on UEFA's website, and were limited to applying for four each.
UEFA has repeatedly underlined that it is the only authorised channel, and that other purported ticket sources could be fronts for rip-off merchants.
From April 19-22, a UEFA lottery will determine the lucky ticket applicants.
UEFA has said Euro 2012 ticket sales are set to generate 100 million euros.
The vast majority -- almost 88 percent -- of ticket applicants were from Poland and Ukraine, it noted Friday.
UEFA underlines that it has taken Poles' and Ukrainians' lower spending power into account.
The average monthly gross salary in Poland is around 800 euros ($1,128), and in Ukraine, just over 200 euros ($282). That compares with the equivalent of 4,000 euros ($5,642) in Switzerland and 2,000 euros ($2,821) in Austria.
The cheapest 2008 ticket was 45 euros ($64). The bottom rung in 2012 is 30 euros ($42).
At 600 euros ($846), the cost of high-end tickets is unchanged.
Is Ukraine’s U-Turn Towards Russia Irreversible?
KIEV, Ukraine -- Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has bluntly stated that the West is letting Ukraine’s sovereignty to be sold away and the Russians to take over.
Since the election of Viktor Yanukovich (by a slim margin of 3.48%) in February 2010 as president of Ukraine, the reversal of Ukraine’s pro-Western progress, led by previous pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko, has been swift.
Within one month after the vote, Yanukovich abroptly shut down a government commission preparing Ukraine’s eventual accession into NATO. A month later, he struck a deal with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev extending the Russian Black Sea Fleet to remain headquartered in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol at least until 2042. In exchange Ukraine was to be granted a 30% discount on imported Russian gas.
Before Yanukovich’s election win, Ukraine was insisting that Russia would have to vacate their Crimean navel base when the old lease expired in 2017. But if a future pro-Western government decides to boot the Russian navy out of Sevastopol, it would have to repay all of the gas discounts from which Ukrainians have benefitted.
Tymoshenko warns that the country’s current rulers see everyting as an asset to be sold, including natural resources, state monopolies, government cash flows, media and factories.
The most crucial deal Tymoshenko considers to be Russia’ state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom’s intent to outright merger witrh Naftohaz Ukrainy. Ukraine has held off, while proposing a 50/50 ownership.
Russia’s goal of controlling Ukraine’s transit infrastructure is understandable since 80% of Russian energy exports to Europe flow through Ukraine’s pipelines. The North Stream pipeline project will not drastically change the picture.
But if Russia were to outrright control Ukraine’s energy conduit, both Ukraine and parts of Europe would be at the total mercy of Moscow. In addition, Russia’s nuclear conglomerate TVEL won contracts to supply uranium to Ukrainian reactors, beating competition from Westinghouse and tightening Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia.
The hallmarks of an entrenched dependency on Moscow are very evident in the military and economic sectors. Kiev’s Russia-oriented rulers are also changing the ideological/political landscape of the country. Yanukovich’s supporters have taken over previouslyt independent TV outlets like Channel 5 and RTVi.
He has compiled a list of people and topics forbidden to be broadcast on TV. Stepan Bandera, a WWII freedom fighter against both the Nazis and communists and a national hero to most Ukrainians, has been banned from Ukrainian history. Yanukovich, of mixed Polish, Belorussian and Ukrainian descent, whose mother tongue is actually Russian is backing attempts to upgrade Russian as an official state language. (To his credit, Yanukovich has been taking Ukrainian lessons.)
The Holodomor, a Soviet-instigated genocidal famine targeted against Ukraine in the 1930’s has received a revisionist rewriting, rendering Moscow blameless.
While Yanukovich’s radical changes in direction have sometimes percipitated in physical battles amogst parliamentarians in the Supreme Rada, especially with respect to Russia’s Black Sea fleet, polls have indicated that emotions haven’t run that high in the population.
Apparently more than 60% approve of the Russian navy staying and modernizing, perceiving economic benefits to the locality, which is heavily ethnic Russian, and to Ukrainian shipyards.
While one in three Ukrainians are native speakers of Russian, only 17.3% of the total population identified themselves in the 2001 census as ethnic Russians. This is a dramatic example of the effect of classic Russification, at least in the realm of languages.
But Ukraine’s largest trading partner is still Russia and some say that actually trade and investments, more than Yanukovich’s political predilictions, will keep these neighbours close.
Others remind us of the contempt with which Putin regards Ukraine as he bluntly put it to George Bush at a NATO summit in 2008 that Ukraine is “not even a real state” and that Ukraine would “cease to exist as a state” were it to be a NATO member. They say that the sharp about-face by Yanukovich is more due to Moscow’s influence than a pragmatic economic accomodation.
If the WikiLeaks revelations are credible, then Vladimir Putin’s hate for Ukraine’s pro-Western past president Viktor Yuhchenko is matched by his disdain for the current pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich.
A 2009 cable from US ambassador to Kiev, William Taylor quotes Ukrainian foreign minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko saying that the Kremlin wants a “regency” in Ukraine, someone in control who is totally subservient to Moscow. Observers feel that this reflects Russia’s annoyance and discomfort with Ukraine’s independence.
Even the willingness of Ukraine’s current leaders to seek short term economic gains by making strategic concessions has not brought more respect for Kiev.
Russia has not only been able to solidly anchor its military presence in Ukraine, but has also co-opted Ukraine’s security services. The pro-western head of Ukraine’s secret service (SBU) was replaced by a Moscow-friendly director.
Russian security services have been given a free hand in the Crimea (in reality this means all over Ukraine). The SBU and Russia’s FSB signed a co-operation agreement, whereby the SBU no longer targets Russia but rather the US.
However, some analysts still insist that Ukraine’s seemingly abrupt international about-face displays subtleties and complexities that shouldn’t be dismissed. Yanukovich’s loyal political base is the pro-Russia electorate in eastern and southern Ukraine, and his open courtship of Moscow might in fact be political camouflage for a strategy of steady movement towards Europe demanded by the business interests of his party’s supporters.
It’s also worth noting that Yanukovich’s prime minister Mykola Azarov doesn’t speak Ukrainian. This reveals the current administration’s disregard for the sensibilities (at least on the language issue) of Ukrainian nationalists.
Within one week of being inaugurated as president, Yanukovich visited Brussels first and then Moscow. Never considered simplistically as a pro-Russia presidential candidate, he has withstood pressure from Moscow to make rash statements about NATO and Russia’s proposed customs union.
There are vastly greater benefits to be accrued from a comprehensive free trade pact with the EU than a Russia-dominated customs union.
Pro-Russia observers indicate that a total Russia-Ukraine strategic union is inevitable. They point to numerous polls that showed a lack of support for NATO membership. (Yushchenko never received a solid invitation to join from increasing leery western leaders.)
Ethnically Russian-populated Crimea has been home for the Russian Black Sea fleet for over 200 years. The Kiev International Institute of Sociology says that more than 60% of Ukrainians have no objection to the fleet remaining there for another quarter century.
Other opinion surveys indicate that issues such as NATO membership or the status of the Russian language are not high priority concerns for Ukrainians. It has been suggested that these polls reveal confusion and a secret desire to maintain the status quo, for change is precarious and the benefits indeterminate.
A poll conducted four years ago indicated that 93% of surveyed Ukrainians desired “order” as the most needed condition; 25% opted for “liberalism”. Another poll, in 2006, showed that only 10% of Ukrainians were willing to give concessions to Russia for cheap gas. This willingness had risen to 58.7% in 2010 – an indication for some that Russia had won the hearts and minds of Ukraine`s people.
In attempting to stifle opposition protest, Yanukovich is seen to be mimicking Putin’s autocratic style of leadership. In spite of this he enjoys firm support in specific parts of the country.
While many Ukrainians, especially in the heavily Russified regions take their cultural and political cues from Moscow, others still insist, however, that in the long run, Ukraine won’t do anything that works against its national interests.
But Russia’s “war” in the area, at first glance, appears to be major success – a “war” conducted on the sly, using political maneuverings, security services and big business. However it needn’t be irreversible.
Ukrainian patriots both in their homeland and abroad, stress that ways for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration be broadened, that a western out-reach which includes travel, education and investment be enlivened.
Ukraine’s business community do not need incessant cajoling to boost their interest in economic integration with Europe and the West. They know they need not become just a commercial conduit for Russia.
It’s still feasible for the western military and NATO to continue cooperation with Ukraine’s defence forces, in spite of the fact that its membership is off the current agenda.
In addition, as has been stressed time and again at numerous forums, the West should engage Ukraine’s civil society and support the pro-Western, democratic community in the country.
Since the election of Viktor Yanukovich (by a slim margin of 3.48%) in February 2010 as president of Ukraine, the reversal of Ukraine’s pro-Western progress, led by previous pro-Western president Viktor Yushchenko, has been swift.
Within one month after the vote, Yanukovich abroptly shut down a government commission preparing Ukraine’s eventual accession into NATO. A month later, he struck a deal with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev extending the Russian Black Sea Fleet to remain headquartered in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol at least until 2042. In exchange Ukraine was to be granted a 30% discount on imported Russian gas.
Before Yanukovich’s election win, Ukraine was insisting that Russia would have to vacate their Crimean navel base when the old lease expired in 2017. But if a future pro-Western government decides to boot the Russian navy out of Sevastopol, it would have to repay all of the gas discounts from which Ukrainians have benefitted.
Tymoshenko warns that the country’s current rulers see everyting as an asset to be sold, including natural resources, state monopolies, government cash flows, media and factories.
The most crucial deal Tymoshenko considers to be Russia’ state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom’s intent to outright merger witrh Naftohaz Ukrainy. Ukraine has held off, while proposing a 50/50 ownership.
Russia’s goal of controlling Ukraine’s transit infrastructure is understandable since 80% of Russian energy exports to Europe flow through Ukraine’s pipelines. The North Stream pipeline project will not drastically change the picture.
But if Russia were to outrright control Ukraine’s energy conduit, both Ukraine and parts of Europe would be at the total mercy of Moscow. In addition, Russia’s nuclear conglomerate TVEL won contracts to supply uranium to Ukrainian reactors, beating competition from Westinghouse and tightening Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia.
The hallmarks of an entrenched dependency on Moscow are very evident in the military and economic sectors. Kiev’s Russia-oriented rulers are also changing the ideological/political landscape of the country. Yanukovich’s supporters have taken over previouslyt independent TV outlets like Channel 5 and RTVi.
He has compiled a list of people and topics forbidden to be broadcast on TV. Stepan Bandera, a WWII freedom fighter against both the Nazis and communists and a national hero to most Ukrainians, has been banned from Ukrainian history. Yanukovich, of mixed Polish, Belorussian and Ukrainian descent, whose mother tongue is actually Russian is backing attempts to upgrade Russian as an official state language. (To his credit, Yanukovich has been taking Ukrainian lessons.)
The Holodomor, a Soviet-instigated genocidal famine targeted against Ukraine in the 1930’s has received a revisionist rewriting, rendering Moscow blameless.
While Yanukovich’s radical changes in direction have sometimes percipitated in physical battles amogst parliamentarians in the Supreme Rada, especially with respect to Russia’s Black Sea fleet, polls have indicated that emotions haven’t run that high in the population.
Apparently more than 60% approve of the Russian navy staying and modernizing, perceiving economic benefits to the locality, which is heavily ethnic Russian, and to Ukrainian shipyards.
While one in three Ukrainians are native speakers of Russian, only 17.3% of the total population identified themselves in the 2001 census as ethnic Russians. This is a dramatic example of the effect of classic Russification, at least in the realm of languages.
But Ukraine’s largest trading partner is still Russia and some say that actually trade and investments, more than Yanukovich’s political predilictions, will keep these neighbours close.
Others remind us of the contempt with which Putin regards Ukraine as he bluntly put it to George Bush at a NATO summit in 2008 that Ukraine is “not even a real state” and that Ukraine would “cease to exist as a state” were it to be a NATO member. They say that the sharp about-face by Yanukovich is more due to Moscow’s influence than a pragmatic economic accomodation.
If the WikiLeaks revelations are credible, then Vladimir Putin’s hate for Ukraine’s pro-Western past president Viktor Yuhchenko is matched by his disdain for the current pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich.
A 2009 cable from US ambassador to Kiev, William Taylor quotes Ukrainian foreign minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko saying that the Kremlin wants a “regency” in Ukraine, someone in control who is totally subservient to Moscow. Observers feel that this reflects Russia’s annoyance and discomfort with Ukraine’s independence.
Even the willingness of Ukraine’s current leaders to seek short term economic gains by making strategic concessions has not brought more respect for Kiev.
Russia has not only been able to solidly anchor its military presence in Ukraine, but has also co-opted Ukraine’s security services. The pro-western head of Ukraine’s secret service (SBU) was replaced by a Moscow-friendly director.
Russian security services have been given a free hand in the Crimea (in reality this means all over Ukraine). The SBU and Russia’s FSB signed a co-operation agreement, whereby the SBU no longer targets Russia but rather the US.
However, some analysts still insist that Ukraine’s seemingly abrupt international about-face displays subtleties and complexities that shouldn’t be dismissed. Yanukovich’s loyal political base is the pro-Russia electorate in eastern and southern Ukraine, and his open courtship of Moscow might in fact be political camouflage for a strategy of steady movement towards Europe demanded by the business interests of his party’s supporters.
It’s also worth noting that Yanukovich’s prime minister Mykola Azarov doesn’t speak Ukrainian. This reveals the current administration’s disregard for the sensibilities (at least on the language issue) of Ukrainian nationalists.
Within one week of being inaugurated as president, Yanukovich visited Brussels first and then Moscow. Never considered simplistically as a pro-Russia presidential candidate, he has withstood pressure from Moscow to make rash statements about NATO and Russia’s proposed customs union.
There are vastly greater benefits to be accrued from a comprehensive free trade pact with the EU than a Russia-dominated customs union.
Pro-Russia observers indicate that a total Russia-Ukraine strategic union is inevitable. They point to numerous polls that showed a lack of support for NATO membership. (Yushchenko never received a solid invitation to join from increasing leery western leaders.)
Ethnically Russian-populated Crimea has been home for the Russian Black Sea fleet for over 200 years. The Kiev International Institute of Sociology says that more than 60% of Ukrainians have no objection to the fleet remaining there for another quarter century.
Other opinion surveys indicate that issues such as NATO membership or the status of the Russian language are not high priority concerns for Ukrainians. It has been suggested that these polls reveal confusion and a secret desire to maintain the status quo, for change is precarious and the benefits indeterminate.
A poll conducted four years ago indicated that 93% of surveyed Ukrainians desired “order” as the most needed condition; 25% opted for “liberalism”. Another poll, in 2006, showed that only 10% of Ukrainians were willing to give concessions to Russia for cheap gas. This willingness had risen to 58.7% in 2010 – an indication for some that Russia had won the hearts and minds of Ukraine`s people.
In attempting to stifle opposition protest, Yanukovich is seen to be mimicking Putin’s autocratic style of leadership. In spite of this he enjoys firm support in specific parts of the country.
While many Ukrainians, especially in the heavily Russified regions take their cultural and political cues from Moscow, others still insist, however, that in the long run, Ukraine won’t do anything that works against its national interests.
But Russia’s “war” in the area, at first glance, appears to be major success – a “war” conducted on the sly, using political maneuverings, security services and big business. However it needn’t be irreversible.
Ukrainian patriots both in their homeland and abroad, stress that ways for Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration be broadened, that a western out-reach which includes travel, education and investment be enlivened.
Ukraine’s business community do not need incessant cajoling to boost their interest in economic integration with Europe and the West. They know they need not become just a commercial conduit for Russia.
It’s still feasible for the western military and NATO to continue cooperation with Ukraine’s defence forces, in spite of the fact that its membership is off the current agenda.
In addition, as has been stressed time and again at numerous forums, the West should engage Ukraine’s civil society and support the pro-Western, democratic community in the country.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Baby Traffickers Caught Trying To Smuggle Girls Over The Border From Ukraine To Hungary
KIEV, Ukraine -- The French parents were trying to sneak the twins out of Ukraine into Hungary because, they said, France refused to issue the children passports, as it does not recognise surrogacy.
The mother said: “We are not child traffickers, we are their parents. We tried to cross the border out of despair and love for our little girls.”
Ukrainian border guards took the pictures on Monday and a criminal investigation into illegal transportation of minors abroad has been launched while the babies, named Vicky and Kim, have been taken to hospital.
The French couple, held in Ukraine, visited the girls on Wednesday and the mother said: “I want to write to all the countries in the world and ask them to give my girls any passport just so that I can take them with me.”
Parents adopting surrogate children face legal hurdles in European countries that do not recognise such arrangements.
A gay Belgian couple waited more than two years to be reunited with their son – born to a mother in Ukraine – after Belgium initially refused to issue him a passport.
They also unsuccessfully tried to smuggle the boy out of the country by car.
The mother said: “We are not child traffickers, we are their parents. We tried to cross the border out of despair and love for our little girls.”
Ukrainian border guards took the pictures on Monday and a criminal investigation into illegal transportation of minors abroad has been launched while the babies, named Vicky and Kim, have been taken to hospital.
The French couple, held in Ukraine, visited the girls on Wednesday and the mother said: “I want to write to all the countries in the world and ask them to give my girls any passport just so that I can take them with me.”
Parents adopting surrogate children face legal hurdles in European countries that do not recognise such arrangements.
A gay Belgian couple waited more than two years to be reunited with their son – born to a mother in Ukraine – after Belgium initially refused to issue him a passport.
They also unsuccessfully tried to smuggle the boy out of the country by car.
EU Commissioner Warns Ukraine Against 'Political' Justice
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A top European Union official on Thursday warned Ukrainian authorities against using justice 'for political ends.'
EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule made the comment after meeting former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now an opposition leader who says corruption charges brought against her are politically motivated.
Tymoshenko is alleged to have misappropriated some 380 million dollars in state funds and improperly used official vehicles during her 2009 unsuccessful presidential election campaign.
'I reiterated to Mrs Tymoshenko the need for criminal law not be used for political ends,' Fule said in a statement.
Fule said Tymoshenko agreed with him on the need to 'play a constructive role' over government plans to reform electioral rules, the constitution and the judiciary.
Prosecutors allowed Tymoshenko to travel to Brussels for a meeting of the European People's Party, an umbrella group of European conservative parties.
Earlier this year, her two previous requests to visit the EU capital had been rejected.
Tymoshenko has argued that she and her allies are the victims of a state campaign to repress the opposition.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has denied the allegations, saying his government is cracking down on high-level corruption without regard to political associations.
EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule made the comment after meeting former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now an opposition leader who says corruption charges brought against her are politically motivated.
Tymoshenko is alleged to have misappropriated some 380 million dollars in state funds and improperly used official vehicles during her 2009 unsuccessful presidential election campaign.
'I reiterated to Mrs Tymoshenko the need for criminal law not be used for political ends,' Fule said in a statement.
Fule said Tymoshenko agreed with him on the need to 'play a constructive role' over government plans to reform electioral rules, the constitution and the judiciary.
Prosecutors allowed Tymoshenko to travel to Brussels for a meeting of the European People's Party, an umbrella group of European conservative parties.
Earlier this year, her two previous requests to visit the EU capital had been rejected.
Tymoshenko has argued that she and her allies are the victims of a state campaign to repress the opposition.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has denied the allegations, saying his government is cracking down on high-level corruption without regard to political associations.
Ukraine Ex-Leader Charged Over Reporter's Murder
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine on Thursday charged ex-president Leonid Kuchma over the 2000 murder of a journalist, its most notorious post-Soviet crime, amid doubts he could be jailed even if found guilty.
Ukrainian prosecutors confirmed they had presented charges of "abuse of power" to Kuchma as he attended a second session of questioning after a criminal probe was formally opened earlier this week.
The headless body of 31-year-old Georgy Gongadze -- the founder of the liberal Ukrainska Pravda website and a virulent critic of Kuchma -- was found in 2000 after he was abducted from central Kiev.
"I have been served with charges," Kuchma, Ukraine's president from 1994-2005, told reporters outside the prosecutors office.
"I have not yet read (them) from beginning to end," he said, adding he would have another session with the investigators on Monday.
He declined to elaborate on the nature of charges, only saying it was "nothing new".
The spokesman for prosecutors, Yury Boichenko, later confirmed to AFP that Kuchma had been charged for abuse of power under an article in the Ukrainian penal code from 1960.
Ukrainian press reports have said the statute of limitations under this article was 10 years, meaning that even if Kuchma is found guilty he could escape jail. This was not confirmed by prosecutors.
"Leonid Kuchma is not threatened with jail," wrote Sergiy Leshchenko, one of the main writers for Ukrainska Pravda which even after Gongadze's death remains one of the most vibrant voices in the national media scene.
Prosecutors announced earlier this week they had opened a criminal probe against Kuchma on suspicion that he gave the orders that led to Gongadze's brutal murder.
The prosecutors stopped short of saying Kuchma was suspected of personally masterminding the murder, saying the former president was suspected of abuse of power and giving illegal orders to police that led to Gongadze's death.
The announcement caused a sensation in Ukraine, coming after a decade of pressure from Kuchma's opponents to have him face trial for the killing of the journalist.
Previously, prosecutors had appeared to draw a line under the case last year by saying that former interior minister Yury Kravchenko -- who committed suicide in 2005 -- ordered the murder.
Given that Kravchenko took his evidence to the grave, the move prompted accusations from Gongadze's family that the authorities were seeking to pin all the blame on a dead man to protect someone of greater importance.
Former interior ministry employee Olexy Pukach has been in custody since 2009 in connection with the murder. He has confessed to personally strangling the journalist with his belt and beheading him with an axe.
Kuchma said he had personally confronted Pukach, who had been summoned to the prosecutors office earlier in the day.
"I can say that there was a confrontation with Pukach," local news agencies quoted Kuchma as saying.
"Pukach, I believe...(acts) according to a principle -- no man, no problem," he said, suggesting that Pukach was seeking to pass the buck to deceased Kravchenko.
Also present as the prosecutors office Thursday was Mykola Melnichenko, a former bodyguard of Kuchma who recorded tapes where voices -- including one alleged to be of Kuchma -- could be heard speaking about eliminating Gongadze.
Crucially, prosecutors ruled that the tapes were admissible evidence, for the first time since they were made public in 2000.
The tapes, whose publication at the time prompted mass protests in Ukraine, contain a voice resembling that of Kuchma suggesting to have Gongadze "kidnapped by Chechens".
Melnichenko left the prosecutors declaring he was still hoping for a formal confrontation with Kuchma to air his allegations but this had been postponed until the coming days.
Ukrainian prosecutors confirmed they had presented charges of "abuse of power" to Kuchma as he attended a second session of questioning after a criminal probe was formally opened earlier this week.
The headless body of 31-year-old Georgy Gongadze -- the founder of the liberal Ukrainska Pravda website and a virulent critic of Kuchma -- was found in 2000 after he was abducted from central Kiev.
"I have been served with charges," Kuchma, Ukraine's president from 1994-2005, told reporters outside the prosecutors office.
"I have not yet read (them) from beginning to end," he said, adding he would have another session with the investigators on Monday.
He declined to elaborate on the nature of charges, only saying it was "nothing new".
The spokesman for prosecutors, Yury Boichenko, later confirmed to AFP that Kuchma had been charged for abuse of power under an article in the Ukrainian penal code from 1960.
Ukrainian press reports have said the statute of limitations under this article was 10 years, meaning that even if Kuchma is found guilty he could escape jail. This was not confirmed by prosecutors.
"Leonid Kuchma is not threatened with jail," wrote Sergiy Leshchenko, one of the main writers for Ukrainska Pravda which even after Gongadze's death remains one of the most vibrant voices in the national media scene.
Prosecutors announced earlier this week they had opened a criminal probe against Kuchma on suspicion that he gave the orders that led to Gongadze's brutal murder.
The prosecutors stopped short of saying Kuchma was suspected of personally masterminding the murder, saying the former president was suspected of abuse of power and giving illegal orders to police that led to Gongadze's death.
The announcement caused a sensation in Ukraine, coming after a decade of pressure from Kuchma's opponents to have him face trial for the killing of the journalist.
Previously, prosecutors had appeared to draw a line under the case last year by saying that former interior minister Yury Kravchenko -- who committed suicide in 2005 -- ordered the murder.
Given that Kravchenko took his evidence to the grave, the move prompted accusations from Gongadze's family that the authorities were seeking to pin all the blame on a dead man to protect someone of greater importance.
Former interior ministry employee Olexy Pukach has been in custody since 2009 in connection with the murder. He has confessed to personally strangling the journalist with his belt and beheading him with an axe.
Kuchma said he had personally confronted Pukach, who had been summoned to the prosecutors office earlier in the day.
"I can say that there was a confrontation with Pukach," local news agencies quoted Kuchma as saying.
"Pukach, I believe...(acts) according to a principle -- no man, no problem," he said, suggesting that Pukach was seeking to pass the buck to deceased Kravchenko.
Also present as the prosecutors office Thursday was Mykola Melnichenko, a former bodyguard of Kuchma who recorded tapes where voices -- including one alleged to be of Kuchma -- could be heard speaking about eliminating Gongadze.
Crucially, prosecutors ruled that the tapes were admissible evidence, for the first time since they were made public in 2000.
The tapes, whose publication at the time prompted mass protests in Ukraine, contain a voice resembling that of Kuchma suggesting to have Gongadze "kidnapped by Chechens".
Melnichenko left the prosecutors declaring he was still hoping for a formal confrontation with Kuchma to air his allegations but this had been postponed until the coming days.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Afghan Citizens Beaten In Detention At Ukraine Airport
KIEV, Ukraine -- Amnesty International has condemned the mistreatment of eight Afghan citizens awaiting deportation from Ukraine, who are being beaten by border guards and denied adequate food, water and medical treatment.
The eight men have been in detention at Boryspil Airport in Kiev for three days and sources have told Amnesty International that, as a result of the ill-treatment, some of them are so severely injured that they are unable to lie down.
"The Ukrainian authorities must stop these deportations," said Andrea Huber, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.
"They also need to rein in their border guards, and provide adequate medical treatment, food and water to these men as required by international law. The appalling reports of detainee abuse must be investigated immediately."
Some of the detained group applied for asylum in Ukraine, but their claims were rejected and they have not been able to appeal, contravening Ukraine's obligations under refugee law.
The Afghans claim that they were not provided with interpreters while claiming asylum, nor during the deportation procedure.
They also allege that they were required to sign documents in a language they do not understand, and that some were not present during the hearings on their cases.
"These people should not be deported until they have been given the right to appeal their asylum decision and effectively challenge their deportation, in line with Ukraine's domestic and international obligations," said Andrea Huber.
Amnesty International is also asking the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the detained men are given access to lawyers and the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Six other Afghans who were originally detained with the group have already been deported to Afghanistan in the last two days, including an unaccompanied minor.
Also allegedly subjected to abuses by guards, some of these detainees self-harmed in protest but were deported anyway.
The eight men have been in detention at Boryspil Airport in Kiev for three days and sources have told Amnesty International that, as a result of the ill-treatment, some of them are so severely injured that they are unable to lie down.
"The Ukrainian authorities must stop these deportations," said Andrea Huber, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia.
"They also need to rein in their border guards, and provide adequate medical treatment, food and water to these men as required by international law. The appalling reports of detainee abuse must be investigated immediately."
Some of the detained group applied for asylum in Ukraine, but their claims were rejected and they have not been able to appeal, contravening Ukraine's obligations under refugee law.
The Afghans claim that they were not provided with interpreters while claiming asylum, nor during the deportation procedure.
They also allege that they were required to sign documents in a language they do not understand, and that some were not present during the hearings on their cases.
"These people should not be deported until they have been given the right to appeal their asylum decision and effectively challenge their deportation, in line with Ukraine's domestic and international obligations," said Andrea Huber.
Amnesty International is also asking the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the detained men are given access to lawyers and the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Six other Afghans who were originally detained with the group have already been deported to Afghanistan in the last two days, including an unaccompanied minor.
Also allegedly subjected to abuses by guards, some of these detainees self-harmed in protest but were deported anyway.
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