A senior member of the Ukrainian opposition arrested on suspicion of corruption has rejected allegations of wrongdoing and accused the country's pro-Russia government of repression, according to Monday news reports.
"For me the political character of this and other repressive measures against the opposition to the present government is obvious," said Yury Lutsenko, a former interior minister, according to the Segodnya newspaper.
"My detention is yet more proof of a policy of intimidation of society and terror against the opposition in Ukraine," he said, DPA reported.
A team of 11 special forces police arrested Lutsenko, one of the highest-profile members of Ukraine former pro-Europe government, as he was walking his dog in the capital Kiev.
Lutsenko will be charged with abuse of office and receiving money illegally. He is being held in a Kiev jail, the Interfax news agency reported Monday citing police spokesmen.
He is alleged to have illegally arranged a pension of 5,000 dollars a month to be paid his driver, along with other abuses of office, according to news reports. Lutsenko has denied all wrongdoing.
Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of Ukraine's opposition, was Lutsenko's boss and a close political ally while in office from 2004 to 2009.
She is under government investigation and faces charges of using some 220 million dollars raised from the sale of carbon credits to cover a budget shortfall when she was in office.
Lutsenko as head of the national police was one of the highest-profile members of the Tymoshenko government, twice coming to blows with his critics on live television.
He made international headlines in May 2009 when he was arrested at Frankfurt airport, reportedly for drunken and disorderly conduct.
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych last month announced a national anti-corruption campaign and instructed the police and general prosecutor's office to bring to justice any state employee abusing his office, without regard to position or political affiliations.
Tymoshenko's camp has accused the Yanukovych government of conducting a vendetta against them.
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