A request by Ukrainian authorities for an INTERPOL Red Notice, or international wanted persons alert, for the arrest of Viktor Yanukovych on charges including abuse of power and murder has been received by INTERPOL General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, France.
The request, received on Wednesday 5 March 2014, is being assessed by INTERPOL’s Office of Legal Affairs to determine whether it conforms with the Organization’s constitution and rules.
All INTERPOL member countries have been informed of the ongoing review and all references to the Ukrainian Red Notice request have been blocked from visibility to INTERPOL’s 190 member countries until the legal review has been completed.
No further comment will be made by the INTERPOL General Secretariat until this review is complete and member countries have been informed of INTERPOL’s decision.
Red Notices are one of the ways in which INTERPOL informs its member countries that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual by a judicial authority. A Red Notice seeks the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action. It is not an international arrest warrant.
On February 22, Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv. On February, 28 he held a press conference on Russia's Rostov-on-Don and stated that he was still a legitimate president.
Referring to sources in the country's secret services, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN broke the news of Yanukovych's death on Thursday and asked the Russian authorities to confirm or rebut the information.
At the same time, the former president of Ukraine in severe condition was hospitalized with provisional diagnosis 'heart attack' to one of the medical institutions of Moscow, his condition is severe, Russia's newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets reported Thursday.
