Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has accused President Viktor Yuschenko of pressuring Prosecutor-General Oleksandr Medvedko into filing a criminal case against Andrii Portnov, the Cabinet of Ministers-appointed acting chairman of the State Property Fund.
Tymoshenko made the accusation at a press conference.
"Today, when the government meeting started, the President invited the prosecutor-general and, in a direct regime, forced him to file cases against employees of the [State] Treasury, against the leaders of the State Property Fund, including acting [chairman] Andrii Portnov," Tymoshenko said.
Tymoshenko stressed that she considered the criminal case that was filed against Portnov as a case filed against her personally.
"It was not against Portnov that the case was filed. It was a case filed against me personally, against enforcement of order in Ukraine," Tymoshenko said.
Moreover, according to her, employees of the State Treasury and the State Property Fund are constantly being summoned to the Prosecutor-General's Office for questioning following the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council that took place on May 16.
"They started pulling them for questioning at the Prosecutor-General's Office after the NSDC [meeting], including all officials, leaders of the Treasury and the SPF, who have not embarked on the road to corruption and until today all these people and their families are simply being persecuted," Tymoshenko said.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Prosecutor-General's Office has filed a criminal case against Portnov, the Cabinet of Ministers-appointed acting chairman of the State Property Fund, on suspicion of attempting to illegally privatize state assets as well as against officials of the State Treasury for exceeding their authority.
