KIEV, August 11. /TASS/. Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, has refused to go to the Prosecutor-General’s Office for questioning on Tuesday for a solid reason — the threat to his life, his lawyer, Vitaly Serdyuk, has told the media.
"Yanukovych will not go there for questioning due to a threat to his life and health. My client has dispatched a notarially certified statement with a request for beginning investigative activities in which he is involved. He would like to be questioned either in a video conference mode or by an investigator dispatched to his current place of residence," Serdyuk said.
"In his statement Yanukovych declared that he is permanently present in the city of Rostov-on-Don. He will be prepared to give his address to the investigator dispatched to hear his testimonies. We refrain from making the address public for security reasons. Should an investigator decide to come here, he will be given the address and have a chance to do his job on site," Serdyuk said.
The lawyer recalled that Kiev’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday will consider a complaint from Yanukovych’s defense against the Prosecutor-General’s decision to hold pre-trial inquiries in his absence.
Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office on August 6 officially summoned Viktor Yanukovych for questioning through a government-published daily. The case on charges of usurping power against Yanukovych was launched on April 8, 2015. The Prosecutor-General’s Office holds Yanukovych responsible for coming into illegal possession of government assets — buildings and facilities of the Pushcha Voditsa rest and leisure compound at Mezhyhirya.
Ukraine’s parliamentary daily published a law stripping Yanukovych of his presidential title on June 17.