Interpol rejects Ukrainian murder charges against ex-officials
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/interpol-rejects-ukrainian-murder-charges-against-ex-officials-377233.html
Interpol issued a statement today saying that it had rejected a Ukrainian request to place ex-regime officials, including former President Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, on its wanted list for murder.
The international police agency instead issued “Red Notices, or international wanted persons alerts, for four individuals including former President Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov,” for financial crimes only.
The alerts are based on a new request by the Ukrainian authorities, as a March 2014 request on charges including abuse of power and murder was “assessed by Interpol as not compliant with the Organization’s rules and regulations and was refused,” the Interpol statement read.
“Red Notices are only issued to Interpol member countries if the requesting National Central Bureau has provided all the information required by the General Secretariat.”
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Ukraine’s new government had already faced fierce criticism for failing to gather enough evidence of human rights violations or corruption to obtain an Interpol red notice or support EU sanctions against former regime officials. Serious flaws in their investigation into the Euromaidan killings were exposed in a Reuters special report last October. ▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/10/us-ukraine-killings-probe-special-report-idUSKCN0HZ0UH20141010
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The government will suffer a serious blow to its credibility if its law enforcement arm cannot present a convincing case against Yanukovych and other key figures for the deaths of demonstrators, who have become legend in Ukraine as ’the heavenly hundred’.
