Ukraine’s former Defense Minister Mykhailo Yezhel, who was Ambassador to Belarus in 2013-2015, won refugee status in our country.
He is staying in Minsk, Radio Liberty reports with reference to the Ukrainian Unified Register of Judgments.
In accordance with the court ruling, Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies received permission to launch a pre-trial investigation against Mykhailo Yezhel in absentia due to his having refugee status. The court referred to the document by the Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence dated by May 16, 2017 sayng that Yezhel, who was granted refugee status in the Republic of Belarus, lives in Minsk, where his family rents an apartment.
Mykhailo Yezhel served as head of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine from March 2010 to February of 2012. In April 2013, the then president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych appointed him envoy to Belarus.
In August 2014, it became known that a number of criminal cases were initiated against Yezhel. He is accused of embezzlement of public funds (at least $5 mln) and ruining the Ukrainian army when being Minister of Defense. In April 2015, president Petro Poroshenko withdrew him from Minsk; and in May Yezhel was dismissed from his post.
During to his last visit to Ukraine in August 2014, he failed to did not admit his guilt when interrogated. It is unknown whether the Ukrainian authorities have asked Belarus to extradite him for the extradition of a former official.
КА, belsat.eu
