国际英语新闻：Ukraine's former president questioned over 2004 poisoning case

KIEV, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's former president, Victor Yuschenko, was questioned Friday in the Prosecutor General's Office over his poisoning in 2004.

Yuschenko's press service said he went to the Prosecutor General's Office after receiving a letter asking him to "give additional blood samples" for retests.

Yuschenko was questioned for four hours at the office.

After leaving the office, Yuschenko told reporters: "I would agree to pass the reexamination of my blood just in case an international independent test would be conducted as well."

But he added that he could not understand the motives for his blood retests as part of the criminal case.

In 2004, Yuschenko, then a candidate for the presidential elections, met with the leadership of the Ukrainian Security Service and then fell ill and was hospitalized in a Vienna clinic.

The doctors said Yuschenko was poisoned with dioxin. Later, a reexamination confirmed the presence of dioxin in his body.