April 8, 2021, 00:22

The statement claims  that “four years ago Mykola Chaus illegally, in unclear circumstances, entered Moldova, and now he has , in strange circumstances, disappeared in Moldova.”

In the phone call, Dmytro Kuleba stated  that Ukraine had  expected  Moldova’s saying ‘no” the political asylum application of Mykola Chaus and his subsequent extradition. The Ukraine’s top diplomat dismissed allegations of Kyiv involvment in the fugitive kidnapping.

“Ukraine has not been involved in Mykola Chaus situation, and now proposes to establish a joint working group with Moldova to discover the information on the his abduction and whereabouts. .. Ukraine has always been, and will remain Moldova’s friend,” says the Foreign Ministry statement.

Dmytro Kuleba also alleged that there have been attempts to use the Chaus story to dent Ukraine-Moldova ties and their European aspirations.

Mykola Chaus- all you need to know about the man and his kidnapping

Mykola Chaus is a former judge of Kyiv’s Dniprovsky District Court who heard cases of Avtomaidan activists. He  was set to be removed from the office under the “lustration’ law provisions but avoided the sack.

August 2016

NABU detectives detained Chaus accusing him of taking a 150,000 US dollars a and stashing money in a glass jar in his garden. Given his judicial immunity, he avoided jail.

November 27, 2017

Ukraine’s Supreme Council of Justice removed him from the post.   The judge was put on the Interpol ‘wanted’ list following his escape from the country.

Shortly after, he showed up in Moldova where he sought political asylum.

July 11, 2020

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky asked Moldova’s authorities for his extradition.

April 3, 2020

Mykola Chaus was kidnapped by the group of unknown men, reported the fugitive’s local lawyer  Iilian Balan.

Moldova Socialists’ Telegram channel “Index” informed that the judge had been  moved to Ukaine in a Toyota Rav 4 vehicle allegedly owned by the Ukraine’s Embassy. In the follow-up story, the channel revealed the name of the Toyota Rav 4 driver, alleging it was Serhiy Smetanyuk, Ukrainian military attaché, who was set to return to Ukraine on April 9. It is reported that two of the men going in the car later crossed the Ukrainian border “Otach” checkpoint on foot.