KYIV. Aug 16 (Interfax) - A former head of Ukraine's National University of the State Tax Service who was accused of bribery and put under house arrest has escaped to Belarus on his brother's passport, according to Ukraine's Gazeta.ua website.
Gazeta.ua has posted a photocopy of a document certifying that Petro Melnyk crossed the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The website didn't say what authority had issued the certificate, according to which Melnyk passed through customs at Ukraine's Horodyshche checkpoint at 3 a.m. on August 9.
He is said to have shown his own passport at the Verkhny Terebezhiv checkpoint in Belarus at 5 a.m.
On August 14, Ukraine put Melnyk on Interpol's most wanted list.
The internal security service of Ukraine's Ministry of Revenues and Levies and officers from the organized crime unit of the country's police force detained Melnyk on July 27. Two persons had allegedly paid him bribes of 40,000 and 80,000 hryvni for getting relatives enrolled in the university.
Melnyk was put under house arrest by Kyiv's Pechersky District Court on August 1 and prohibited from leaving his home except for medical examinations or treatment.
On August 9, he managed to take off an electronic tracking device put on him on August 7 and fled. He was Ukraine's first senior official and the first-ever suspect in the Kyiv region to have an electronic tracking device put on him.