Kyiv's Solomyanskyy district court has authorised a detention of the former head of the National Commission for Energy and Utilities, Dmytro Vovk, the director of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Artem Sytnyk, has said.
Citing its source, Ukrainian News reported that Vovk was arrested in absentia, but Sytnyk said that was not the case.
"No, [authorization for] detention... When international search is on the agenda, detention and arrest are considered separately. Today a decision on detention has been made. This decision is required to begin an international search. There is a whole procedure: international search is announced, and if the whereabouts are established, detention is carried out," Sytnyk explained.
He refused to say where Vovk is but confirmed that, according to NABU, the ex-official is abroad.
Sytnyk also added that as of 5 September, the Specialised Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office should refer its motions not to Kyiv's Solomyanskyy district court but to the Higher Anticorruption Court.
"Yesterday was the last day we could get resolutions from the Solomyanskyy court," he said.
NABU suspects Vovk and five more people of abuse of power (Article 364 Part 2 of the Criminal Code).
In April, before he was declared a suspect, Vovk, his wife and children went to Belgium. He said that he would not return to Ukraine because he did not trust the law-enforcement and judicial systems.