Anti-Corruption Bureau complains about prosecution’s sabotage

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) demanded the materials on a number of cases from the Prosecutor General’s Office but has not received a response.

This was stated by Head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Artem Sytnyk, DT.UA reports.

“We demanded about ten cases from the Prosecutor General’s Office. In particular, with regard to deputy chief of the Ukraine’s Security Service department of Rivne region, who was detained for bribery related to illegal amber production. I made all the relevant decisions, coordinated them with the anti-corruption prosecutor, according to the procedure, but the decisions are not implemented,” Sytnyk said.

In addition, according to him, the Prosecutor General’s Office has the array of data relating to Mykola Martynenko, the MP from the People’s Front Party faction, which NABU lacks to carry out the investigations. In addition, the experts of the Bureau are dealing with the case of “Avakov’s backpacks” simultaneously with the Prosecutor General’s Office.

“Now we are preparing the materials to request this case from the Prosecutor General’s Office as well. However, we do not have such problems with other bodies. For example, we initiated a case over the Kyoto Protocol, knowing that the investigation is being carried out by the police and the fiscal service. At our request, all the materials were promptly submitted and we were able to combine the cases into one proceeding. As a result, the NABU has almost completed the investigation. Unfortunately, the Prosecutor General’s Office continues to ignore us,” Sytnyk added.

The Head of the NABU also noted that the requests had been submitted not once, but no official response had been received.

“We will a little bit, and then we will seek the assistance of the Parliament in order to create such a mechanism,” he said.

At the same time, Sytnyk stresses that despite the approved provisions of the law, according to which all the cases, which were opened at the beginning of the activities of the NABU, remain at the Prosecutor General’s Office while the Bureau has the authority to request them, if necessary.

As a reminder, Viktor Shokin has frequently been slammed by the media and activists because of the slow reform of the prosecutor’s office and the virtual absence of tangible results in the investigation into the crimes committed during the Maidan protests, the corruption cases as well as the cases against individuals on the EU’s sanctions list.