Panama court has temporarily arrested ex-head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management Vladyslav Kaskiv for the period up to 40 days, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yevhen Yenin has said.
"With the appearance of comments in mass media regarding preventive measures against Kaskiv I would like to say that now a temporary arrest (the period of up to 40 days) has been applied to him under a ruling of Panama court dated August 25, 2016," Yenin wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
He said that if it is required Panama court can apply an extradition arrest under a request of Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), the original of which has been handed to Panama. We are in contact with Panama," he said.
"This is a temporary arrest. This preventive measure can be imposed until the moment when Ukraine provides the original of the request to extradite the lawbreaker. At the present stage, all required documents have been transferred to Panama authorities. In three or four hours a court hearing will be held and the procedure for Kaskiv would be selected: if he expresses a desire to apply a simplified extradition procedure and he will come to Ukraine within one month, or if he insists on the complete procedure," Yenen said on the 112 Ukraine television channel on Friday.
He said that Kaskiv could insist on getting a political asylum in Panama, which could hinder the extradition process, but it would not halt it, as it is likely that Panama would refuse to give a political asylum to him.
Earlier on September 8 Yenin said that PGO has received confirmation from INTERPOL on the arrest of Kaskiv in Panama.
He said that during 48 hours a court hearing will be held and the extradition procedure will be determined. He said that if Kaskiv gives consent, it could take 30 days to implement the procedure.
As reported, on August 8, 2016, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko said: “We have just received information on the detention of "the second Spanish instructor" Mr. Kaskiv in Panama. He was put on the international wanted list under Article 191 (theft) and other official crimes.”
The petition to extradite Kaskiv had been handed to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and "now diplomatic executives are to send the documents to Panama," PGO spokesperson Larysa Sarhan wrote on her Facebook page on August 20.
Kaskiv refuted the statement of Lutsenko about his alleged arrest in Panama.
In his blog on the website of Ukrayinska Pravda publication he posted a photo with a Panamanian police officer and a fresh newspaper in his hands and wrote: "I have never been detained and arrested in Panama or elsewhere. There is no Interpol red card on me. Only politically motivated 'law enforcers' have information about my 'crimes'. The motive for the event was a usual clearance of my migration status by the Panamanian Migration Service when I crossed the border with Costa Rica where I planned to go with friends and my family."
In its turn, Ukrainian PGO said that INTERPOL had issued Red Notice against former head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management of Ukraine Vladyslav Kaskiv and law enforcement agencies are taking measures to extradite him to Ukraine. On August 1, 2016, INTERPOL General Secretariat published a Red Notice to arrest and extradite former head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management of Ukraine Kaskiv under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of official post committed in respect of an especially gross amount, or by an organized group) and Part 2 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (forgery in office).
The press service said, referring to a report of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Panama that on August 18, 2016 Kaskiv was detained on the border with Costa Rica when he did not get a permit to enter the country on August 17, 2016.
In turn, Director of Communications Department of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry Artem Shevchenko said that as of Thursday, the Ukrainian Bureau of INTERPOL hasn’t received information on Kaskiv’s detention in Panama.
From December 2010 until March 2014 Kaskiv headed the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management.
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