State prosecutors can prove ex-President Yanukovych lied under oath
During skype-questioning ex-President Viktor Yanukovych failed to provide concrete answers to questions addressed to him. In addition, Yanukovych gave false testimony, evidence of which is in the possession of Ukrainian prosecutors," head of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) of Ukraine's department for special investigations Oleksiy Donskoy had said.
"He is not answering concrete questions. By law, he should first answer questions of the defense, give his version of events and then it's our turn to ask questions," Donskoy told journalists during a recess at Kyiv's Sviatoshynsky district court, where Yanukovych appeared via skype on Monday.
Donskoy said the task before the prosecution is to demonstrate the "wishywashyness of testimony" given by Yanukovych.
"I think we were able to do this. Yanukovych was not able to concretely explain the circumstances of the events, about which he was asked. I think he did not answer how he on February 23, 2013 at 03.51 arrived in Eisk [Russian Federation], or from where he was returned to Crimea by military aircraft. We also did not receive an answer about the letter [asking] to send Russian military units to Crimea. This was very important to us, because the events on February 20, 2013 and that letter are part of the same chain of events, where there was one motive," Donskoy said.
He said prosecutors have evidence Yanukovych provided false testimony.
"The critical questions we wanted to ask were either not answered or Yanukovych lied, in particular regarding [aide to Russian Federation president Vladislav) Surkov. Yanukovych and Surkov met [Yanukovych's residence] at Mezhyhirya. We know the day and the exact time of the meeting. Yanukovych maintains he had no contact with Surkov. This is a lie. We have evidence of the meeting. When we evaluate his testimony procedurally we will show that his testimony is false, that he lied in his answers to our questions," Donskoy said.
The prosecutor said Yanukovych was summoned to give testimony by defense lawyers, making the task of state prosecutors to debunk everything the ex-president said.
"I think we did not receive answers to concrete questions, or received false testimony. In this we succeeded," Donskoy said.