Member of Parliament from the Verkhovna Rada's Volya Narodu group Oleksandr Onyshchenko whose arrest has recently been authorized by Ukrainian lawmakers may have fled to Moscow, and his lawyer has also left Ukraine after anti-corruption authorities searched his premises, head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky has said.
Kholodnytsky told Channel 5 aired on July 5 night that he considered that possible appeals by Onyshchenko’s lawyers against his client being stripped of parliamentary immunity as unpromising. In his words, the procedure was in strict accordance with laws.
Kholodnytsky said that he regretted that Onyshchenko had not kept his promise to cooperate with the investigation and left the country.
Answering a question about Onyshchenko’s whereabouts, Kholodnytsky said: “Yesterday there were pictures showing him watching a football match in Moscow… Then he wrote in social media saying that was an old picture, and it was Vienna not Moscow. But reports we’ve got say he left Ukraine on July 2 by plane from Kyiv to Minsk. “I’m sorry but I’ve never heard about airlines flying to Vienna via Minsk… those who want to get to Russia, fly via Minsk.”
Kholodnytsky also explained that the announcement about putting Onyshchenko on the wanted list is possible not earlier than in two weeks, as is necessary to observe certain procedures: call him for questioning twice, issue a notice of suspicion, and after all this, it is already possible to declare him as wanted.
