Ukraine will request the extradition of a former government minister accused of embezzlement, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday, DPA reported.
Police acting on an Interpol warrant arrested Bohdan Danilishin, Ukraine's former economics minister, Tuesday in Prague. He is accused of embezzling 627,000 dollars earmarked for construction at Kiev's Boryspil airport while he was minister.
Danilishin also allegedly awarded more than 1.4 million dollars in contracts to insiders during a term of office that ran from December 2007 through March 2010, according to the government charges.
Ukrainian media have reported that government prosecutors are investigating allegations Danilishin illegally bought fuel for the army at inflated prices, costing the Ukrainian government more than 2 million dollars.
Danilishin has denied all wrongdoing. He is an ally of opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
In recent statements, Tymoshenko has alleged she and members of her former government, most recently Danilishin, have been targeted by the Ukrainian government for retribution.
Spokesmen for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko have denied Tymoshenko's claim. They say they are cracking down on official corruption and giving prosecutors full authority in investigating potentially dishonest state employees, both past and present.
Serhy Khoroshevsky, head of Ukraine's national intelligence agency the SBU, which is heading up Yanukovych's honest government campaign, told Kiev media last week more than half of some 2,300 officials arrested or charged on corruption were members of Yanukovych's own Party of Regions.
The highest-profile Ukrainian corruption conviction came in 2006, with the US sentencing of former prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko to a nine-year prison term for money laundering, wire fraud and extortion.
Danilishin would face a similar term in Ukrainian prison if convicted of the charges pending against him.