Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who resigned last week, has issued a notice of suspicion to National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Director Semen Kryvonos and called on him to step down. In a video address on September 14, Kravchenko accused NABU and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) employees of illegally taking case materials during searches conducted as part of an operation dubbed “Carthage.” According to Kravchenko, the materials concerned criminal proceedings against NABU and SAPO officials and employees that were being handled by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Its true goal was to gain access to case materials in criminal proceedings against NABU and SAPO leaders and staff, and then to remove the prosecutor general and suspend procedural decisions on those cases,” Kravchenko said, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
He said the Prosecutor General’s Office was providing procedural oversight in dozens of serious and especially serious criminal cases involving NABU and SAPO officials. Kravchenko alleged that some case materials had been illegally copied or taken during searches at the office. Kravchenko said Kryvonos was suspected of “forging official documents to obtain an unlawful benefit on a large scale,” as well as the “sham adoption of a child in order to create grounds for evading liability in court.” He also said he had issued a notice of suspicion to an unnamed person close to SAPO Head Oleksandr Klymenko.
The case allegedly involves attempts to influence judges of the High Anti-Corruption Court, offering them unlawful benefits and helping the individual evade mobilization. Kravchenko said the case involving the person close to Klymenko was the actual reason for the search of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The accusations have been rejected by NABU and SAPO.
In a joint statement, the agencies said their employees had not seized any criminal case materials during the search. They also said that Kryvonos had not been formally notified of suspicion as of the morning of September 14. Its active phase began last summer, and one of its main goals was an attempt to subordinate NABU and SAPO to the Prosecutor General’s Office,” NABU and SAPO said.
Kravchenko resigned as prosecutor general on September 8. He reiterated that his resignation was “a deliberate political decision that is not an admission of any guilt, the result of any agreement, or a rejection of his continued fight for his reputation and integrity.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Kravchenko’s video address, called for his dismissal from office and urged the Verkhovna Rada to accept his resignation as soon as possible. That’s exactly what I told him.
Ukraine has seen all the reasons. If he considers this political pressure, let him call it that,” Zelensky said. Sources close to Zelensky told RBC Ukraine that Kravchenko had acted without coordinating with the presidential office.
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