KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s outgoing government sought Monday to control the inquiry into the poisoning of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, with officials close to the government taking charge of both investigations into who tried to harm or kill him.
The head of a new inquiry by lawmakers – an ally of Yushchenko’s opponent in the court-ordered Dec. 26 presidential rematch – immediately cast doubt on whether deliberate poisoning could be proved. The decision by a parliamentary commission to reopen its probe came a day after a similar move by the country’s new top prosecutor.
An elite clinic in Austria determined over the weekend Yushchenko had been poisoned by dioxin in early September. Doctors said Saturday that dioxin, which caused dramatic facial disfigurement and other ailments, may have been slipped into Yushchenko’s food.
Yushchenko had dinner with Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko and his deputy Volodymyr Satsyuk on Sept. 5. Yushchenko’s wife, Kateryna Chumachenko, told Ukraine’s Zerkalo Nedeli weekly that her husband came home late and that when she kissed him she detected the strange taste of medicine.
The candidate fell ill the following day.
Meanwhile, Yushchenko’s opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, charged Monday that Washington is interfering in Ukraine’s internal affairs by supporting his opponent’s presidential campaign and denied that neighboring Russia has had any political influence in his administration.
The U.S. government denied meddling in Ukrainian affairs or helping Yushchenko.
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