KIEV, Ukraine, March 11 (UPI) -- Ukrainian authorities say they are investigating allegations a Palestinian engineer visiting the country was abducted and taken to Israel.
"The Ukrainian Security Service has been informed about the disappearance of a Palestinian citizen, Dirar Abu Sisi, in Ukraine," the security service said in a statement Friday.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said it was doing its utmost to establish the whereabouts of the 42-year-old Palestinian engineer, the deputy director at a Gaza power plant, and stressed Abu Sisi had not been detained by police, Interfax news agency reported.
Interfax reported some foreign and Ukrainian media had earlier reported Abu Sisi boarded a train Feb. 18 in Kharkiv-Kyiv, Ukraine. The Palestinian Information Center (a Hamas Web site) alleged he was to meet his brother, who he hadn't seen since moving to Gaza 15 years ago, at Kyiv's Boryspil airport.
Abu Sisi's Ukrainian wife, Veronika, allegedly relaying information from train conductors, said 2 hours after her husband boarded the train two men entered his compartment, produced IDs of special service officers and took him in an unknown direction.
The conductors later refused to testify saying nothing had happened on the train and there had been no abduction, Interfax reported.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has not commented because the case is still being investigated by law enforcement.
