Ukraine prosecutors search Anti-Corruption Bureau

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine announced on Aug. 5 a search of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, from which documents were confiscated in an investigation of suspected illegal audio recordings. The allegedly illegal recordings were conducted either by an employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), or a detective of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said afterwards, adding that there was no conflict between law enforcement bodies.

In his turn, National Anti-Corruption Bureau Head Artem Sytnyk said the documents were already given to prosecutors, which confirm that recordings were conducted with the cooperation of the SBU. Therefore the search and confiscation had no legal basis, he said. This investigation was launched in April after the bureau began requesting autonomous surveillance authority and has been reactivated with the necessary legislation submitted to parliament, he said.

The purpose of the search was to discredit the Anti-Corruption Bureau before the IMF should it ask Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko why he doesn’t support granting the agency the right to autonomous surveillance, said the same day Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, an NGO. MP Mustafa Nayyem said the search is part of a systemic attack on the only independent law enforcement body in Ukraine.

Zenon Zawada: President Poroshenko has already demonstrated his desire to control Ukraine’s law enforcement bodies, in defiance of Western demands for helping to establish independent law enforcement bodies. In this context, the pressure placed on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau is not surprising and should raise concern about Ukraine’s Western development. This incident is further evidence that the Ukrainian government is not rushing to get Western loans, particularly from the IMF.