Interpol has stopped its search for Ukrainian MP Mykola Kniazhytsky, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said.
“At 12.00 we started our official exchange with Interpol on this topic and at 14.15 we received information that for the time of the investigation into these strange discrepancies (in the information contained in the request for Kniazhytsky to be placed on the wanted list), the search has been stopped,” Avakov said at a briefing in Kyiv on March 24.
Avakov said that the Ukrainian Interior Ministry had received Interpol’s request to put Kniazhytsky on the wanted list.
“There was an Interpol Red Notice announced by the Cambodian police, which contains charges against Kniazhytsky of committing a crime during his stay in Cambodia,” he said.
The Ukrainian authorities believe that the request contains some questionable information, Avakov said.
He said that the Interior Ministry of Ukraine has checked this information.
“We have received a statement of Mykola Kniazhytsky in this regard. We prepared and sent a relevant request to the headquarters of Interpol and directly to Cambodia, which initiated the Red Notice,” he said.
As reported, Ukrainian Interpol Bureau confirmed that the Interpol branch in Cambodia had put Ukrainian MP Mykola Kniazhytsky on its wanted list on charges of rape.
According to the Ukrainian Interpol Bureau, Cambodian law enforcement has accused Kniazhytsky of raping a minor in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on September 9, 2011.
His extradition is being sought by the Cambodian judicial authorities who say he will be arrested and prosecuted.
Kniazhytsky submitted a complaint to the police about the threats and pressure on him by foreign intelligence services and Russian propagandists who “provide false information to foreign and international law enforcement agencies, which was inspired by the Russian special services and falsified by criminal prosecutions in third world countries.”
Kniazhytsky is Head of the Committee on Culture and Spirituality in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
