HOT ANTICORRUPTION NEWS / Issue #110
July 26, 2019
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Today's issue:
- NABU and PGO conducted searches at the notorious Kyiv District Administrative Court;
- NABU detained former chief of Odesa police;
- SAPO keeps dumping cases regarding MP Logvynskyi and Odesa airport;
- Prime Minister did not ask to dismiss the AMCU state commissioner Agia Zagrebelska;
- Handziuk's case: Katya's murderers might escape punishment;
- trial against Vitaliy Shabunin: the witnesses - medical experts failed again to show up;
- AntAC shared the experience with colleagues from Transparency International - Armenia;
- recommended reading
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NABU and PGO conducted searches at the notorious Kyiv District Administrative Court (OASK)
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The searches were conducted in the course of the proceeding into possible criminal offences committed by OASK president and judges.
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The investigation suggests that OASK president Pavlo Vovk and other judges passed deliberately unlawful rulings and intervened in the activity of the judicial self-governance bodies with the aim to create obstacles for the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine. The goal of such actions was to avoid the obligatory judicial qualification assessment.
According to NABU, the plan was implemented in a few stages:
- artificially initiated lawsuits regarding the termination of the mandates of some HQCJ members and banning them from performing their functions, ensuring adoption of court rulings to satisfy these lawsuits;
- with the intervention of OASK president, ensuring the substitution of two HQCJ members with two pre-selected "loyal" persons upon the quota of the Ombudsman and the State Judicial Administration. The HQCJ were forced to accept them via court rulings in cases initiated by the OASK president and staff;
- prohibition for 8 HQCJ members to perform qualifications assessment of judges via the adoption of the unlawful decision by one of the district courts of Odesa, in the arrangement of which OASK officials took part. Odesa court of appeals later cancelled this decision thus unblocking HQCJ work.
The PGO prepared notices of suspicion for OASK president and 4 judges regarding intervention in the activity of the HQCJ (art. 351-2 of the Criminal Code), passing unlawful decisions (art. 375), intervention in the activity of judicial bodies (art. 376).
NABU published the recordings of the conversations. Among people recorded are Vovk, OASK judges Yevgen Ablov, Bogdan Sanin, Ihor Pogribnichenko, Oleksiy Ogurtsov, Pavlo Hryhorovych, HQCJ members Serhiy Ostapets and Mykola Sirosh, attorney Oleksandr Krotyuk, MP Sergiy Kivalov and his assistant Antonina Slavytska.
Earlier we informed about notorious decisions of OASK and time-bombs for reforms that are lying there.
Also, in April we explained why the mandates of the HQCJ members were valid.
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NABU detained former chief of Odesa police
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Former head of Odesa police Dmytro Holovin is suspected by NABU of misappropriation and the abuse of office. He may face from 7 to 12 years in prison.
He was appointed to the office in September 2016, and resigned in April 2019.
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Under Holovin's leadership in Odesa police, a number of assaults against activists significantly grew in the city (to name a few assaults against Oleg Mykhailyk, Vitaliy Ustymenko, and Serhiy Sternenko). The police screwed up all investigations and even 'lost' evidence in the proceedings on attacks against Sternenko.
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SAPO keeps dumping cases:
- regarding MP Logvynskyi
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Volodymyr Kryvenko, the deputy head of the SAPO, has revoked the mandatory application for relieving the fictitious director and founder of Zolotyi Mandaryn Oil LLC Oleksandr Uspenskyi from liability,
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under the case of the Member of Parliament Georgii Logvynskyi (on the picture) on withdrawing over UAH 50 million of budget funds. The SAPO prosecutor Andriy Dovhan presented this application in the court.
On 22 July, the court was supposed to consider the SAPO’s application to relieve Uspenskyi from liability based on expiry of the term to punish him, but the application was revoked. Uspenskyi admits being the fictitious manager of the company, the fact that would have been included in the court ruling if he had been exempt from responsibility. In addition, his testimony would help prove the actual beneficiaries’ participation in the scheme. More details.
For reference, "the aquarium recordings" tapped in Kholodnytskyi's office, showed that SAPO head personally promised to "guarantee the safety" to Lohvynskyi.
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- regarding Odesa airport
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In 2011, when the runaway ex-president Viktor Yanukovych was still in office, private company Odesa Airport Development acquired 75% of Odesa International Airport. The city was left with as little as 25% of equity rights to the airport.
In June 2016, NABU detectives started to investigate the unlawful privatization of the airport. However, on June 10, 2019, Volodymyr Kryvenko, the deputy head of the SAPO and the chief prosecutor under this case, reclassified the case from the abuse of office to the neglect of duty. On the same day, Kryvenko approved the decision to hand over the case to the police of Odesa oblast for further investigation. More details.
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Prime Minister did not ask to dismiss the AMCU state commissioner Agia Zagrebelska
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On July 23, the court held the first hearing of the case of Agia Zagrebelska, the former state commissioner of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, versus the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Zagrebelska has opposed a decree to dismiss her, considering it to be unlawful.
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During the court hearing, it was revealed that the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had made no submission to the president for the dismissal of the state commissioner, which is the procedure prescribed by the law. More details.
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Katya's murderers might escape punishment
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The initiative "Who is behind the murder of Katya Handziuk" informs that the prosecutor's office put on hold the proceedings against top suspect Vladyslav Manger and organizer of the crime Oleksiy Levin.
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Proceedings were suspended without extending pre-trial investigation terms, which are already almost over. The term of the investigation ends on August 3, 2019, because investigators and prosecutors determined it incorrectly. As a result, the following risk occurred: if Manger challenges such suspension in the investigation process and should the court take his side, the investigation will be renewed, but only after August 3. However, after this date prosecutors neither will be able to prolongate the investigation terms, nor to end it by transferring the case to the court.
Manger and Levin will once for all escape liability. Just due to technical expiry of the terms of the investigation.
What must be done: Prosecutor's office must immediately resume proceedings and apply for prolongation of terms. Another option is to announce the termination of investigation regarding Manger, and continue investigating Levin. And it's the matter of a couple of days. More details.
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Trial against Vitaliy Shabunin: witnesses - medical experts failed again to show up
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On July 23, the court hearing in the case against Vitaliy Shabunin was to be held in Dnipro district court of Kyiv. He is indicted for an alleged punch of a journalist, who in fact is a bully-provocateur, Vsevolod Filimonenko. The court was supposed to question two witnesses - medical experts who examined the injuries of Filimonenko. However, none of them appeared in court.
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The next court hearings are scheduled for July 31 at 11:30am and August 2 at 2:00pm.
It was planned that the doctor-radiographer would have been questioned in May, but he ignored court hearings. Shabunin's attorney filed motions to ensure the doctor's mandatory participation in the hearing. Such a necessity is explained by the fact that the doctors managed to detect Filimonenko's injuries only 12 days after he was punched. Medical expert David Valiakhmetov was also invited to testify: the ambulance doctors did not find any fracture on Filimonenko's face, while Valiakhmetov saw it after 12 days. In April 2019, a medical assistant from the ambulance who arrived at the place of incident on the day of the punch informed that Filimonenko rejected hospitalization and the first medical aid.
Earlier we informed that the results of medical examination in Shabunin's case were falsified.
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AntAC shared the experience with colleagues from Transparency International - Armenia
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For two days, AntAC hosted guests from Armenia. We were happy to share our experience on monitoring public procurements and finances, justice sector reforms, advocacy and communications. We believe it is crucial to invest in the agents of change in Ukraine and also from other countries too.
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