The Batkivschyna faction has delegated MP Serhiy Vlasenko to participate in the PACE session, and this constitutes full grounds to include him in the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to PACE, Batkivschyna has reported.

In a statement released by the press service of the Batkivschyna United Opposition on Tuesday in response to reports that Vlasenko is allegedly cheating investigators regarding his travel to Strasbourg, the press service posed a copy of the statement sent by the head of the faction, Arseniy Yatseniuk, to Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak on January 15, 2013.

"Due to the need for MP Serhiy Vlasenko to deliver a speech at the PACE session on January 25, 2013, please take into account changes in the composition of the delegation from the parliamentary faction of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union," reads the copy of the document.

The copy of the document notes that MP Serhiy Sobolev was to represent the Batkivschyna faction in the PACE from January 20 to January 24 and Vlasenko from January 25.

"The decision about who leaves for the regular session of the PACE – a member of the permanent delegation or his deputy – is taken by the faction or the delegates themselves, rather than the speaker, who must perform only a technical function: to approve the composition of the delegation submitted by factions," Batkivschyna said.

At the same time, the faction's press service said that the parliament speaker, "with unknown principles and powers, determined the following composition of the delegation, which included deputy heads represented by the pro-government faction, but did not include deputy heads from the opposition (including Vlasenko), a motion about whom was tabled on time and in the prescribed manner," reads the statement.

As reported, a source close to the investigative team in the case on the murder of MP Yevhen Scherban in 1996 told Interfax-Ukraine on January 28 that Vlasenko is ignoring summons from investigators to participate in investigatory proceedings.

"He [Vlasenko] was properly informed about scheduled investigatory proceedings involving suspect [Yulia] Tymoshenko in Kharkiv. He explained his inability to attend them by an instruction of the Verkhovna Rada, according to which he was allegedly included in the delegation sent for the PACE session in Strasbourg," the source said.

"As we can see from the document, Vlasenko was not included in the Verkhovna Rada's delegation," the source said, referring to the instruction on a mission of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to PACE for participation in the first part of the PACE session in 2013.

As reported, on January 24 the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine did not let Vlasenko leave Ukraine, explaining its actions by a ruling of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court. Vlasenko was heading for Strasbourg to participate in a PACE session.

According to the Web site of the Verkhovna Rada, MP Vlasenko is a member of Ukraine's permanent delegation to PACE.