The Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld a decision to throw out the case of a Ukrainian politician accused of a raping a minor in Cambodia in 2011, a court official said.
Mykola Kniazhytsky, 47, a member of parliament for Ukraine’s People’s Front party, was placed on Interpol’s most-wanted list in March last year over the alleged rape of a minor in Phnom Penh in September 2011.
But he was dropped from the wanted list two days later and the Phnom Penh Municipal Court—which had issued a warrant for his arrest—dismissed the case in May last year, with a lawyer for Mr. Kniazhytsky claiming that the plaintiff had admitted to fabricating the allegations.
Khut Sopheang, a deputy prosecutor at the Appeal Court, said the plaintiff had since appealed the municipal court’s decision but that the case was no more valid this time around.
“The judge saw that the Phnom Penh court was completely lawful” in its decision to dismiss the case, Mr. Sopheang said on Thursday.
Mr. Kniazhytsky was swift to reject the claims against him when they initially surfaced, noting that he had been hosting a live television talk show in the Ukraine the night before the alleged rape occurred.
