Ukraine criminal cases, trials underway as corruption reports continue

A Kyiv district court will begin hearing on March 23 criminal charges against former Kyiv Administration Head Oleksandr Popov for his role in the violent dispersal of the EuroMaidan protest on Nov. 30, 2013, the Ukrinform news agency reported on March 13. Popov is charged with the illegal interference with conducting assembly and protest as part of a premeditated conspiracy and complicity in abuse of authority by law enforcement personnel.

Ukrainian prosecutors have filed criminal charges against four high-ranking officials with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) from the regime of former President Viktor Yanukovych regarding crimes committed during the EuroMaidan protest, current SBU Head Valentyn Nalyvaychenko told the lb.ua news site in an interview published on March 14. They are former SBU Head Oleksandr Yakymenko, former National Statehood Protection Department Head Serhiy Hanzha, former Counter-Reconnaissance Director Volodymyr Byk, and former Anti-Terrorist Center Head Volodymyr Totskiy. In all, 78 criminal cases have been opened against 170 former SBU employees, he said.

About 100,000 tons of hydrocarbon products that were confiscated from Russian oil giant Rosneft and Serhiy Kurchenko, widely identified as the financier of the Yanukovych regime, have been sold yet the proceeds didn’t come to the state budget as revenue, according to an article published on zn.ua on March 13. The market value of the confiscated resources is UAH 1.5 bln, of which at least a third should have been taxed, the report said.

Hundreds of millions of hryvnias were siphoned from the state budget into corrupt schemes by officials at state enterprise Derzhinvestproekt, including acting director Hennadiy Diachenko, according a report on the zn.ua news site. As an example of one scheme, a company created by the officials bought and resold a land tract several times during which its value was inflated 20 times, said the report published on March 14. Other schemes involved illegal banks that are involved in selling foreign currency.

Zenon Zawada: What is offered here is a snapshot of how the Ukrainian government is handling the criminal violations of the Yanukovych administration and what’s happening now in terms of corruption. It took a year for charges to be brought against Popov, and better late than never. Yet for every such positive step of addressing the past, there are several examples of alleged corruption flourishing currently. It’s not unreasonable to believe the government uses announcements of new cases being opened and new charges being filed regarding crimes from a year ago to deflect attention from current alleged crimes, which aren’t being investigated and prosecuted.

These examples demonstrate that the process of establishing criminal justice, with regard to the past and present, is occurring on an uneven, even selective basis. Moreover, those who have been caught and are being prosecuted are some of the most offensive, well-recognized personalities from the Maidan protest, rather than those from behind the scenes or in key positions, like Kurchenko, who is wanted but not caught. For the government to have selected and targeted Popov, a much reviled figure, his trial will have to end in a conviction and some significant punishment to appease the minimum public dissatisfaction.

Examples such as the SBU’s admission that there are 78 criminal cases pending against former SBU employees (as opposed to convictions, after the SBU’s many :lapses” of the past year) reveal just how the government fails to muster the trust of not only the Ukrainian public, but the global community. The lack of progress in the criminal justice sphere has already been demonstrated in ways such as international financing institutions holding back their aid.