On March 18, People’s Deputy Mykhailo Hutsol, the leader of the Raiduzhny [Rainbow] election bloc whose registration was canceled by the Central Election Committee (CEC), sent a written request to the US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual and Foreign Minister of Ukraine Anatoly Zlenko to grant him, his family, and other candidates of the bloc political asylum in the United States. “I and my family are persecuted in Ukraine for my political convictions, for my struggle for a law-governed, democratic, free, and sovereign Ukraine, for my position in defense of human rights and dignity,” former candidate Hutsol said in his letter, which he gave the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday. “I have information about preparations for the physical extermination of me and members of my family,” Hutsol claims. According to him, he has requested the president and law enforcement bodies to ensure his and his family’s security, but “received no reply.” Hutsol claims to possess “documentary evidence, recorded on audio and video tapes, of falsification of election returns in Ukraine.” In addition, Hutsol also appealed to Prosecutor General Mykhailo Potebenko to investigate the falsification by the CEC of the original nomination documents he had submitted and the committee’s unlawful decision to cancel his bloc’s registration. He requested filing a criminal case against CEC Chairman Mykhailo Riabets.
The American Embassy in Ukraine declined to consider Mr. Hutsol’s request for political asylum, because it does not examine such applications from Ukrainian citizens residing on Ukrainian territory.
