Ukrainian Prosecutor General takes personal oversight of vehicular manslaughter case involving business mogul Yaroslavskyi
Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, is to personally oversee the investigation of a possible vehicular manslaughter case involving Oleksandr Yaroslavskyi, head of the DCH construction company and one of Ukraine’s richest people, she said in a Facebook post on Feb. 11.
The accident was first discovered on Feb. 9 when a man’s body was found on the Kyiv – Kharkiv – Dolzhanskyi highway, near an on-ramp going from the village of Martove where Yaroslavskyi lives, and a license plate bearing the numbers 0018 was located at the scene.
A video released by Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda, reportedly from a surveillance camera overlooking that stretch of highway, shows what is allegedly a car from Yaroslavskyi’s motorcade, and with license plate numbers that match the plate found at scene, driving away from the scene of the crime.
The company later admitted that the car likely responsible for the fatal crash into the victim, was one of theirs, claiming that “the driver of the automobile whose plates were found at the scene of the accident works at one of DCH’s service divisions.”
According to DCH, the driver was taking the car to a parking lot in Kharkiv when he allegedly hit the pedestrian due to the low-visibility conditions of that night.
While the driver is reported to have turned himself in for questioning with law enforcement, Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine, citing a source in law enforcement, claims that the driver was actually some 30 kilometers away from the site of the accident when it occurred.
The story quotes the source as saying, “Law enforcement has already confirmed that Yaroslavskyi was present at the scene of the accident during the time it took place.”
DCH’s statement adds that Yaroslavskyi himself had left for London the morning of Feb. 10, according to what the company alleges were scheduling plans set up at the start of the week, for a “meeting with his family.”
Prosecutor General Venediktova, in her Facebook post, added that “Yaroslavskyi’s hasty departure from Ukraine looks surprising,” and expressed her doubts that the company’s position was genuine.
“The person who confessed to the crime is, according to police and prosecutors, plainly speaking, lying,” she said.
Yaroslavskyi himself has claimed he was asleep when the accident took place and was alerted to a man dying on the road by morning news.
The Interior Ministry has issued a summons for Yaroslavskyi to come in for questioning, though the summons only appeared on their official website after Yaroslavskyi’s flight had left Ukraine.
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