Selectivity and ‘movings’ of prosecutors adversely affect lustration – PGO

It’s difficult to talk about changes in the criminal justice system without cleansing the prosecutor’s offices.

This was stated by Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine in 2014-2016 Vitaliy Kasko, Human Rights Information Centre reports.

According to Vitaliy Kasko, the problem of lustration in the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) has not been solved so far. He noted that selectivity was the main problem of lustration.

“The first and main problem of lustration is selectivity: some prosecutors were fired while others were not fired for various reasons,” Kasko said.

Besides, according to him, lustration in the Prosecutor General’s Office does not cover all senior positions.

“The prosecutor’s office had a three-tier structure – main departments, departments and units. The lustration law covered only the heads of main departments, but it did not formally cover the heads of departments and units,” he said.

In addition, according to Kasko, sequence is also a considerable problem of lustration.

“The practice of ‘movings’ of prosecutors depending on where lustration occurs now has been formed in the prosecutor’s office. People, subject to inspection, moved from the Prosecutor General’s Office to regional prosecutor’s offices. Then lustration came to regional prosecutor’s offices and they moved to the district prosecutor’s offices. This sequence helped them to escape lustration,” Vitaliy Kasko said.