Anti-corruption prosecutors produce 234 indictments, report no convictions

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office
has submitted to courts criminal indictments against 234 suspects involved in
146 cases that were investigated since December 2015, the press service of the
National Anti-Corruption Bureau said in an Aug. 28 press release. In the same
time period, bureau detectives have identified 165 criminal suspects, informing
them of their involvement in 646 criminal cases that are under investigation.

Among the more prominent cases, bureau detectives said
they are completing the investigation of former MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who
was named a suspect in the alleged theft of state funds from contracts with the
leading state gas extraction firm. He has fled abroad since being named a
suspect. More recently in July, detectives informed officials with
Ukrzaliznytsia, the state railway monopoly, that they are suspects in an
embezzlement investigation.

Zenon Zawada: In its announcement,
the anti-corruption bureau neglected to mention whether any of these cases
reached a court trial or resulted in criminal convictions. We are confident
that the trials are few and the convictions are close to none, which is the
fault of Ukraine’s dysfunctional judicial system and the president’s
unwillingness to expend any effort to fix it.

The launch of an independent High Anti-Corruption
Court, approved by President Poroshenko this summer, is supposed to begin to process
of producing convictions and incarcerations of large-scale criminals, of which
there are no more than a handful since Ukraine’s independence.

The sooner this process starts and criminals begin to
be punished, the sooner rule of law becomes established in Ukraine. However,
the president’s inaction throughout his term to address the lacking rule of law
lead us to believe it will be a slow process.