Security chief denies part in 'Yuschenko poisoning'

A top security agency official today denied any involvement in the poisoning of Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Mr Yushchenko accused the authorities of poisoning him in an attempted “political murder” to push him out of the presidential race, and said he was probably poisoned at a dinner with Ukraine’s security agency chief Ihor Smeshko and his first deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk on September 5.

But in an interview with Kiev’s Stolichnye Novosti newspaper today, Mr Satsyuk - who hosted the meal – denied he had “any involvement in Yushchenko’s poisoning”.

Mr Satsyuk said there were four people at the dinner at his dacha – himself, Mr Yushchenko, Mr Smeshko and David Zhvanya, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally. He said that Mr Zhvanya organised the meeting, and that it had been postponed from September 4 because Mr Yushchenko and Zhvanya were busy.

“All food products were on the table on common plates. The food was served by two people and cooked by another one in the kitchen,” Mr Satsyuk told Stolichnye Novosti.

He said he was ready to meet Mr Yushchenko in public. A pro-Yushchenko lawmaker said today that opposition leaders have been unable to establish Mr Satsyuk’s whereabouts since Wednesday, when Ukraine’s parliament speaker told deputies that President Leonid Kuchma had fired the deputy security chief.

Mr Zhvanya, reached over the phone by The Associated Press, declined to comment.