Kyiv Post
June 18, 2010
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/70154/
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| 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. |
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko has said the Artek international children's center child molestation case is extremely politicized.
"This political component has affected this criminal case a lot," Medvedko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
Medvedko said he was surprised that the mother of the abused children hadn't allowed the carrying out of an investigation.
The prosecutor general also failed to answer whether this case is sent to the courts.
"I have said that we will complete the investigation, but I haven’t promised that [the children's stepfather, Dmytro] Poliukhovych will be imprisoned… At present I can't say this case will be sent to the courts," he said.
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. A criminal case on child sex abuse at Artek was opened.
Yuriy Lutsenko, the Interior Minister at that time, said that police had charged Dmytro Poliukhovych, the stepfather of two raped children. He also said that evidence was available to the ministry that a number of Ukrainian MPs were involved in this case.
On October 15-16, a number of Ukrainian newspapers published reports pointing to the surnames of BYT MPs allegedly involved in child sex abuse – Serhiy Teriokhin, Viktor Ukolov and Ruslan Bohdan. All of them denied being involved in the case. The management of Artek also rebuffed allegations of sexual molestation of children at the children's center.
Moreover, the media reported that a priest of the Uman Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) was also involved in the child sex abuse scandal.
A number of experts said that the scandal was connected with the presidential election campaign in Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General's Office is yet to complete the pretrial investigation into this case.
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