On the eve of the next anniversary of the start of Euromaidan, Interpol removed ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Vitaly Zakharchenko and his deputy Viktor Ratushnyak from the international wanted list, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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This was reported by the head of the special investigations department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, Sergei Gorbatyuk, in an interview with Focus.
“Literally a month ago, former Minister of Internal Affairs Zakharchenko and his deputy Ratushnyak were removed from the international wanted list,” he said.
Gorbatyuk explained that Interpol refuses to put all those involved in the “Maidan case” on the wanted list, pointing out that these crimes were carried out under conditions of a change of government, and therefore could be political persecution. According to him, this applies only to those who are in one way or another connected with the authorities - from the Berkut member to the country’s leadership, but the “titushki” are wanted.
In addition, he added that Ukraine has been writing letters to them on this matter for several years, but has not received a response.
“Recently we even encountered a refusal to show wanted people with a so-called blue card. A red card means that all Interpol countries must detain such a person, and a blue card simply reports his movements. After all, we have bilateral agreements on extradition with many countries, including European ones. And when we learn that a suspect has entered a country, we ask the authorities of that country to detain him by providing the necessary documents. But we were denied even this, and in the Ukrainian, and not in the central office of Interpol, with the same motivation,” Gorbatyuk emphasized.
Let us recall that in June 2017, the GPU announced new suspicions against Yanukovych, Zakharchenko, Yakimenko and a number of other ex-officials in the “Maidan cases” of 2014. They are suspected of illegally obstructing the organization and conduct of rallies, processions and demonstrations, organizing law enforcement officers exceeding their official powers, the intentional murder of two or more persons, the completed attempted intentional murder of two or more persons, infliction of intentional grievous bodily harm, as well as in organizing a terrorist act.