Kyiv's Pechersky district court at the start of the New Year authorized the arrest of disgraced ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and former ex-Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko in the so-called "church case," according to a report published by the Kyiv-based Ukrayinska Pravda Internet publication.

"The court on January 3, based on a notice provided by the Prosecutor General's Office, gave permission to arrest Yanukovych and handed down a similar ruling for Zakharchenko, as well as authorized the arrest of Valeriy Koriak, former head of the Kyiv militia," the article says, which was published on Saturday evening.

"The suspects are hiding from investigators and the court. In order to avoid destruction of evidence and influence on the aggrieved parties and experts, the [PGO] investigator believes that the suspects should be arrested and brought to court to determine pretrial confinement," the PGO investigator is quoted as saying.

Former Ukrainian politicians Zakharchenko, Yanukovych and Koriak are suspected of illegally detaining Oleksandr Drabynko, the assistant of the late head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) Volodymyr. Investigators believe Yanukovych and his coterie pressured the late Volodymyr to resign from his position.

Verkhovna Rada deputy Vadym Novinsky is also a suspect in the case, as well as the commander and deputy of the Interior Ministry's "Grifon" police unit in Kyiv. There is no information about permission to detain the figures in the case, according to Ukrayinska Pravda's website.