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	Mp Bohdan: "New Criminal Case Opened after Meeting with Lawyer for Mother of Abused Children" Kyiv Post October 22, 2009 http://www.kyivpost.com/nation/51126 Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) MP Ruslan Bohdan has said that a new criminal case was opened after his meeting with Andriy Tsyhankov, the lawyer for the mother of two sexually abused children, which was held in the presence of police officers. The MP said this in a statement published by the BYT press service on Thursday. Bohdan said that he had met with Tsyhankov at the lawyer's request. "During the meeting, Tsyhankov proposed that Bohdan pay two million [dollars] in exchange for the injured party's not giving testimony against him, and, in such a way, suggested excluding the MP from those involved in the [child molestation] case," reads the statement. "All of the meetings with Tsyhankov were held in the presence of police officers. A new criminal case was opened on this issue. That's why I have no right to make any comments. The public will get the next reports from police officers according to the results of their work," Bohdan said. He said that he had appealed to the police after Tsyhankov's proposal to meet. "As far as I know, Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko made a statement at the Verkhovna Rada on the basis of [the meeting]," Bohdan said. He said that Lutsenko's statement that Tsyhankov demanded $2 million is true. "Mr. Tsyhankov wants only to earn as much money as possible while defending the family of the abused [children]. Yesterday's press conference showed that a so-called lawyer assumed the role of a main jester in a cynical election fraud, which is being directed by some candidates from other political forces, who are currently running for the post of Ukraine's president. These 'candidates' are doing all they can to conceal their criminal past," Bohdan said. He said that the main reason for attempts to make him one of those involved in the case is that he belongs to the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. As reported, Regions Party MP Vadym Kolesnichenko said on October 13 that children had been raped at the Artek international children's center and asked law enforcement agencies to prevent the closure of this criminal case. The criminal case on child sex abuses at Artek is being investigated by the main investigative department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko said on October 14 that police had accused the stepfather of two raped children of child sex abuse, while a further three leaders of the Artek center are witnesses in the case, and they would most likely be accused of committing this crime. He also said that reports are available to the ministry that a number of Ukrainian MPs are involved in this case. On October 15-16, a number of Ukrainian newspapers (Ukraina Moloda, Segodnia, etc) published reports pointing to the surnames of BYT MPs allegedly involved in child sex abuses – Serhiy Teriokhin, Viktor Ukolov and Ruslan Bohdan. All of them denied their involvement in the case. The management of Artek also rebuffed allegations of the sexual molestation of children at the children's center. Police are conducting a number of searches as part of investigating the case, particularly at the apartment of the center's director general, Borys Novozhylov. Moreover, the media reported that a priest of the Uman Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) is also involved in the child sex abuse scandal. A number of experts have linked the scandal to the start of the presidential election campaign in Ukraine.
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