UKRAINE: LUTSENKO RAIDED, INTERROGATED BY

C O N F I D E N T I A L KYIV 000642

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: LUTSENKO RAIDED, INTERROGATED BY
PROSECUTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE

Classified By: Ambassador, reason 1.4 (b,d)


1. (SBU) Summary: On a busy political day that heralded a
potential tectonic shift in the basic blue-orange divide in
Ukrainian politics, which has existed since the
November-December 2004 Orange Revolution (septel),a
Prosecutor General Office (PGO) investigative team launched a
seven- hour search of former Interior Minister Yuri
Lutsenko's apartment shortly after 6:00 am March 20 as part
of a criminal investigation widely seen as politically
motivated. Lutsenko later reported to the PGO for
interrogation.


2. (C) Comment: As we have reported previously, Lutsenko
clearly has the ruling Regions' party rattled by his populist
"People's Self Defense" rallies across Ukraine, which have
started encroaching on their "blue" territory (reftel). The
PGO raid and subsequent interrogation is the culmination of
pressure against Lutsenko since his December 1, 2006, ouster
as Interior Minister. Lutsenko took the apartment raid in
stride. Separately, management at the state TV channel UT-1,
decided not to rebroadcast its weekly live political
talk-show from the evening prior, as usual; the show featured
interviews with opposition leaders Yuliya Tymoshenko (BYuT)
and Vyacheslav Kyrylenko (Our Ukraine - OU). The UT-1
decision, while lower profile, raises potentially concerns
about government interference in media freedom, largely
absent since the Orange Revolution. End Summary and Comment.

Upping the pressure: Lutsenko apartment raided
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) Shortly after 6:00 am March 20, a five-person PGO
team started a seven-hour raid on Yuri Lutsenko's apartment;
Lutsenko was home at the time. His lawyers and media were
denied access until after 9:00 am, nearly half-way through he
raid, but a half-dozen OU MPs, led by financial backer David
Zhvaniya and activist partner Mykola Katerynchuk, used their
deputy status to gain access and take pictures of the raid,
which were posted on the OU website midday
(www.razom.org.ua/ru/news/14784).


4. (SBU) Lutsenko, who smiled for cameras during the raid,
told reporters that he did not think the PGO really intended
to imprison him but wanted to restrict his movement around
the country leading his People's Self-Defense Movement
rallies; the team confiscated his internal passport, two
external passports, and his drivers' license. Lutsenko
signed an agreement to come to the PGO's office for
questioning for four days but not an entire month. Lutsenko
said that the investigators refused to produce the court
decision ordering the search of his apartment; his lawyers
later claimed that there were multiple procedural violations
during the search, carried out in support of charges of abuse
of office and illegal use of weapons. Lutsenko appeared at
the PGO's office at 4:30 pm for further interrogation;
several dozen of his supporters are picketing the PGO,
according to press reports.


5. (SBU) PM Yanukovych told reporters that he had learned
about the raid at 10:00 am, four hours after it started, and
that he phoned PGO head Medvedko after talking to President
Yushchenko. Yanukovych said that Medvedko claimed the raid
was the decision of the investigator and was based on a court
order; he said he would not intervene in the work of the PGO
and law enforcement agencies. (note: the court
authorization came from Pechersk Court, notorious for its
politically-related decisions, particularly in the later
Kuchma years, 2001-2004.)


6. (U) Visit Embassy Kyiv's classified website:
www.state.gov.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Taylor