AntAC: Prosecutor General Kravchenko protects "his" prosecutors from anti-corruption investigations

AntAC: Prosecutor General Kravchenko protects "his" prosecutors from anti-corruption investigations

The legal field of Ukraine can already be compared to a minefield. This is the opinion of civic activists from the Anti-Corruption Action Center.

The office of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko issued a statement after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) exposed one of the prosecutors of the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the investigation, this prosecutor wanted to act as an intermediary in a $3.5 million bribery to SAPO prosecutors and judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC).

The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that searches were conducted in the case involving two of their prosecutors. They hint that one of them was allegedly targeted because "this prosecutor is part of a group of prosecutors investigating criminal proceedings in which the possible illegal activities of NABU detectives are being investigated, including the head of one of NABU’s inter-regional detective departments, Magamedrasulov, who is suspected of aiding the aggressor country."

"With such statements, the Prosecutor General’s Office is trying to further promote the narrative invented by the President’s Office about a ’war between the SSU/Prosecutor General’s Office and NABU,’ although no such war exists. There is a deliberate destruction of anti-corruption bodies by Bankova Street, which the whole country saw in July this year, and which continues further," said the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center board, Vitaliy Shabunin.

Let us remind you that in the Magamedrasulov case, the prosecution involved 42 prosecutors, including Ruslan Kravchenko. For comparison, there were almost as many, 44 prosecutors, working in the entire SAPO as of July.

"Today’s statement by Kravchenko from the Prosecutor General’s Office hints that in the Magamedrasulov case, the Prosecutor General has indeed brought in all his favorite prosecutors, including himself and two of his deputies. So they could freely engage in corruption, and in case they are caught by NABU and SAPO, they could accuse the latter of an alleged ’conflict of interest.’ This is a very convenient position, where it will be very difficult to punish the Prosecutor General and his close entourage for corruption,” added Shabunin.

It is important that the conflict of interests among the state clans does not turn into a full-fledged civil conflict when the people’s patience to remain in the role of a "duped" statistician runs out.