People's deputy Vadym Novinskyy gave instructions to the ex-chief of Kyiv police Valeriy Koryak regarding the illegal detention of Oleksandr Drabynko, the secretary of the late Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchy) Volodymyr.
Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko, speaking on 8 December in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada before the vote for the stripping of MP Novinskyy parliamentary immunity from prosecution said the former president Viktor Yanukovych wanted Metropolitan Volodymyr to be replaced by Metropolitan Antoniy of Boryspil and Brovary (Pukanich).
"From September to December of 2013, Novinskyy with the aim to fulfil the orders of Yanukovych, used all kinds of pressure on the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine to force him to resign to be further replaced by Yanukovych's creature," Lutsenko said.
For this purpose, Yanukovych told Novinskyy to illegally detain Volodymyr's aide Drabynko. Novynskyy over the phone gave Koryak instructions regarding the movements of Drabynko from the territory where he was detained.
Lutsenko said the investigation had information about forty telephone conversations between Novinskyy and Koryak. Drabynko was incarcerated near in a house near Kyiv and guarded by officers of the special force Griffin, the chief prosecutor said.
Novinskyy, in turn, confirmed his phone calls to Koryak, but said that Drabynko had personally asked him to provide protection. Lutsenko said Drabynko did it under pressure.