Rada Decides To Investigate Circumstances Surrounding Allegation Of Perversion Of Children At Artek

The parliament has set up an interim commission to investigate the allegation that minors were perverted at the Artek international children’s center (Crimea).

The relevant parliamentary resolution (No. 5240) was approved by 418 votes; only 150 votes were required for its approval.

The interim commission consists of five deputies, one from each parliamentary faction.

Parliamentary Deputy Kateryna Samoilyk of the Communist Party faction was elected as the chair of the commission and Parliamentary Deputy Yevhen Suslov of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction as the deputy chair.

The other members of the commission are parliamentary deputies Serhii Tereschuk of the Lytvyn Bloc, Oleksandr Bobylev of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense bloc, and Ivan Popesku of the Party of the Regions.

The parliament gave the interim commission three months (from the date of adoption of this resolution) to conduct its investigation.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the press service of the Party of the Regions circulated on October 13 a statement in which Parliamentary Deputy Vadym Kolesnichenko of the Party of the Regions said that the mother of the two children that were allegedly raped by senior officials at Artek had made an appeal to him.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office has confirmed that the main police department is investigating a criminal case (launched under Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which deals with perversion of minors) that was launched in connection with the allegations of perversion of children at Artek.

Internet-based publications have published a copy of an appeal made to President Viktor Yuschenko (allegedly drafted by Parliamentary Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) by parliamentary deputies, in which they claimed that Artek’s Director-General Novozhylov, the center’s chief doctor Henrikh Ratt, priest Vadym Paevksyi, and Parliamentary Deputy Viktor Ukolov of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc were involved in perversion of children at the Artek international children’s center.

According to media reports that emerged later, parliamentary deputies Serhii Teriokhin and Ruslan Bohdan (both members of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc) are also involved in the case.

All these parliamentary deputies and Novozhylov have denied involvement in the case.