Yerokhin deserves better..

Today Prosecutor-General Oleksandr Medvedko declared that there is no evidence to support allegations that one or more VR deputies were involved in the murder of senior UBOZ [Adminstration for combatting organized crime] money-laundering investigator Roman Yerokhin, adding that the information promulgated in the media in this matter, had been "greatly exaggerated".

This statement flatly contradicts statements made over several weeks by Minister of the Interior Yuriy Lutsenko, who promptly responded at a press conference in Kyiv today.

He warned that the investigation, which is now being undertaken by the P-G's office, is in danger of falling apart. "All these days, the prosecutor's office, having taken the case from us, [has merely] passed it on from the beginning from regional prosecutors to the city, then into the P-G's office, but has not undertaken any investigations."

He said that the P-G's investigators have not even bothered to question the prime suspect - former policeman Vadym Klikovskyi, who is currently being held in custody. Instead it has been his own investigators who have been called in for questioning by the P-G's office.

"I consider that all this indicates that there are endeavours to drag this case out, and possibly to conceal the truth.."

There is a war of compromat going on, and some of the mass media are attempting to turn this case against Lutsenko himself in order to push him off the political stage, even though he has doubts whether a PoR VR deputy is involved. Part of the PoR-sympathetic press is trying to discredit BYuT - with fingers being pointed at Oleksandr Shepelyev, a ByuT VR deputy. However internet sites 'close to BYuT' are hinting of a close business relationship between Yerokhin and Lutsenko, and possible corrupt schemes in the higher echelons of government.

Yerokhin was found dead, killed by multiple gunshot wounds, on 20th August near Kyiv. Even if he was trying to 'shake down' powerful crooks for his own ends, he was a senior policeman who did not deserve this fate. His murder should be properly investigated, no matter where this could lead to.

P-G Medvedko's statements strike me as having being made with indecent haste - and his recent declarations that the Yushchenko poisoning case is near to resolution, after 2 years, a diversion or smokescreen.

P-G Medvedko and Min of Internal Affairs Lutsenko have also fallen out over the Vyacheslav Chornovil case. Lutsenk claimed recently that 'Rukh' leader Chornovil's death several years ago in a DTP [car crash] was murder, and not an accident. He also revealed traces of poison were found in the bodies of those who caused the accident.

Medvenko, in a press conference today said, "I consider making such declarations at the moment impossible, as they discredit the sitation in this criminal case. They mislead the community." Another diversion?

ps The latest edition of 'Dzerkalo Tyzhnya' carries a further article on this affair. It ponders whether such a deeply suspicious character as Yerokhin, about whom an official parliamentary referral had been made to the P-G late last year, should have been working for UBOZ at all. The 'DzT' piece asks even more questions about what clearly is a very murky business..

In the end, all secret agents become double agents..