Volodymyr Shulha, a 51-year-old witness in the case involving the poisoning of then-presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko, has died of a heart attack at the Shevchenkivskyi district police station in Kyiv.
The press service of the Interior Affairs Ministry announced this to Ukrainian News.
According to the press service, Shulha and his lawyer arrived at the Shevchenkivskyi District Police Station at about 16:45 on Wednesday, March 26, at the request of investigators to give evidence in a criminal case involving forgery of documents.
After interrogating Shulha in connection with this case, police asked him to explain a claim by a citizen that Shulha made several death threats against him by telephone and SMS text messages.
Shulha wrote an explanation and promised not to take any illegal action against this citizen.
According to the press service, Shulha and his lawyer then left the police station but police officers telephoned him 10 minutes later and asked him to come back to clarify certain circumstances.
When he returned to the police station, Shulha said he would speak to the police only in the presence of his lawyer, who had already gone.
He telephoned his lawyer and asked him to return to the police station while he waited for him in a corridor inside the police station.
According to the press serve, Shulha suddenly fell ill and police officers called an ambulance.
Doctors pronounced Shulha dead when the ambulance arrived.
According to the preliminary conclusion of the doctors, Shulha died of a heart deficiency.
Shulha's body has been sent for autopsy.
According to media reports, Shulha was the organizer of a dinner involving presidential candidate Yuschenko in 2004, after which Yuschenko started experiencing serious health problems.
Yuschenko was later diagnosed with dioxin poisoning.
Media reports link Shulha to the Foxtrot group of companies.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Prosecutor-General's Office has established that Yuschenko was poisoned in September 2004 with the aim of murdering him.
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