Legislators in Ukraine's parliament have today reopened their investigation into opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's mysterious illness after doctors in Austria determined he had been poisoned by the toxic chemical dioxin.
The decision by a parliamentary commission followed a similar move by the country's prosecutor general yesterday.
Mr Volodymyr Sivkovych
The commission will be led by Mr Volodymyr Sivkovych, a lawmaker who has supported Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Mr Yushchenko's opponent in the December 26th rerun for the presidency.
"The results of the most recent expertise in Vienna are giving us grounds to renew our work," Mr Sivkovych said. "However, we are not convinced that deliberate poisoning can be proved."
An earlier commission led by Mr Sivkovych investigated the case in October and decided that Mr Yushchenko had suffered a combination of a viral infection and several other diseases.
Prosecutors had closed the investigation before the November 21st second round of voting, saying that they could not determine whether he was poisoned.
Mr Sivkovych urged Mr Yushchenko to immediately hand over results of the tests conducted by doctors in Austria to prosecutors and the parliamentary committee.
Mr Yushchenko praised Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun on Sunday for reopening the criminal investigation into his illness, but said that he hoped the investigation would be conducted after the rerun because he didn't want the vote to be influenced "either positively or negatively" by the inquiry.
Mr Sivkovych refused to comment on "speculation" over who was behind the poisoning, saying that "all those scenarios are more public relations than truth".
Legislators from Mr Yushchenko's party have said the Austrian clinic's findings confirmed that his opponents wanted to assassinate or disable him rather than take the risk he would defeat the Kremlin-backed Mr Yanukovych in the presidential election.
But Yanukovych campaigners rejected suggestions that the prime minister could have been involved in the poisoning.