Lawyer of former rector of the National State Tax Service University of Ukraine Petro Melnyk, Ruslan Misiuna, has said he thinks that his client failed to withstand psychologically reports that he was to be arrested.

"They just drove him to it, he could not stand this, it was a human factor," the lawyer told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to Misiuna, on Thursday the investigator told Melnyk about his motion to change the preventive measure for the ex-rector from house arrest to custody. According to the lawyer, the investigator's decision was based on misleading reports circulated earlier by journalists.

"Someone is settling accounts with Melnyk and is using the law enforcement agencies and courts to do it," the lawyer said.

Misiuna also said that Kyiv's Pechersky District Court would consider the investigator's motion to change the preventive measure for Melnyk from house arrest to custody on Friday.

As reported earlier on August 9, former rector of the National State Tax Service University of Ukraine Petro Melnyk, who is charged with bribe taking, escaped from house arrest, having removed his electronic tracking bracelets.

The Interior Ministry has put him on a wanted list, the ministry's press service reported.

Melnyk was detained on July 27, 2013, by employees of the main department for domestic security of the Income and Tax Ministry of Ukraine and the main department for the fight against organized crime of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. The rector is alleged to have demanded from two Ukrainian citizens bribes of UAH 40,000 and UAH 80,000 to accept their relatives' entry to university.