NABU Director Semen Kryvonos called on Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko not to transfer NABU cases to other law enforcement agencies.
The head of NABU made this statement in an interview with Suspilne, Ukrinform reports.
“The Prosecutor General has not approached either NABU or SAPO with a request to transfer [any] proceedings to him for review, and has not decided to transfer these proceedings to another agency. No such event must occur during this time [until July 31]. I urge the Prosecutor General not to do this,” Kryvonos said.
According to him, if this happens, after the return of procedural guarantees to the Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Oleksandr Klymenko, he may request this criminal proceeding from the body to which it was transferred.
“But such a transfer of our proceedings or their retrieval would be a disaster! These proceedings contain information about our whistleblowers, about covert investigative and search activities, and evidence of illegal activities. Therefore, this cannot be allowed,” Kryvonos emphasized.
The NABU Director warned that if the Prosecutor General takes any proceedings from NABU by next Thursday and transfers them to another agency, the NABU will immediately make this information publicly known.
“The moment such a request is received, we will inform the Ukrainian public about it. Therefore, I think the likelihood of this is extremely low,” he believes.
Kryvonos reminded that NABU and SAPO are currently unable to proceed with important, high-profile cases because the Head of SAPO has effectively lost his procedural rights.
“Let’s say there is a need to document unlawful benefits or some illegal activity by a high-ranking official. The Head of the SAPO cannot appoint a group of prosecutors and appoint himself as the senior member of this group to protect the information in this case,” explained the NABU Director.
According to him, the only person whom Klymenko can currently notify of suspicion is the head of the village council or a local deputy.
As reported by Ukrinform, on July 22, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law reducing the powers of NABU and SAPO. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed it.
Protests against the new law began in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine.
On July 24, the President submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada with provisions on the independence of SAPO and NABU.
Source: NABU Director urges Prosecutor General not to reassign NABU’s cases to other agencies
