Kolomoisky confidante Hennadiy Korban arrested and detained

Hennadiy Korban, a close business and political associate to industrial magnate Igor Kolomoisky, was arrested at his Dnipropetrovsk home on Oct. 31 and brought to the investigations administration of the Procurator General’s Office of Ukraine in Kyiv the same day, reported the website of the Ukrop party. He was detained and charged with three criminal offenses: stealing funds from the private Country Defense Fund, the August 2014 kidnapping of State Land Agency official Serhiy Rudyk and the February 2015 kidnapping of Dnipropetrovsk City Council Secretary Oleksandr Velychko. The alleged theft involved UAH 40 mln, an SBU official said on Nov. 1. Bail could be set today, an Ukrop lawyer said, as reported by pravda.com.ua.

In response to the charges, Korban said in a statement through his lawyers he wasn’t involved in any kidnappings. Regarding the theft charge, he said he created the Country Defense Fund himself and was its primary donor. “It won’t be hard for me to prove my innocence in court,” he said in the statement released by his lawyers on Nov. 1. The same day, Kolomoisky told the pravda.com.ua news site that the arrest was a sore reaction to the strong performance of the Ukrop party in the local elections.

“No one will stop at Korban,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a televised interview on Nov. 1. He acknowledged that officials from both the prior and new governments still need to be arrested and prosecuted, stressing that no one is immune. The fight against corruption and decisive measures to renew lawfulness are ongoing, he said.

Zenon Zawada: Korban has been expecting his arrest since the spring, when he attempted to win a parliamentary seat in a special election and lost. The seat would have given him political immunity from any criminal charges. Prosecutors decided to wait after the local elections, in which Korban failed in his candidacy for Kyiv mayor.

Kidnappings are serious crimes that deserve to be investigated and the Prosecutor’s General Office in Kyiv deserves credit for pursuing this matter. Yet it’s inevitable that Korban’s arrest – immediately after the elections – will be perceived by the public as selective prosecution targeted at the president’s political enemies. To avoid this, the prosecutors should adopt a policy of arresting at least one official linked to the current government for every high-profile member of the political opposition. As strange as that approach may sound to a Westerner, such measures are necessary in Ukraine, where there is little public trust in rule of law and equality before the law.

Poroshenko’s biggest mistake was that he failed to build a foundation of trust with the public and bring at least one arrest and conviction of the Yanukovych entourage. His comment that “no one will stop at Korban” reveals that he’s beginning to lose touch with the public sentiment, which is a disturbing signal. He thinks he’s impressing the public when the situation is quite the opposite and the public is utterly weary of him. Any new arrests of high-profile politicians lack a certain credibility without arrests and convictions within the Yanukovych entourage.

Korban’s arrest has the potential to become a turning point in the political landscape. Mayoral runoffs are set for Nov. 15 in which the Ukrop party, led by Korban, will be competing. That includes Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city and Korban’s hometown, where the race will be cutthroat and potentially violent. It’s already apparent that Poroshenko is backing Ukrop’s opponents, given the scandalous Central Election Commission ruling regarding the vote in nearby Pavlohrad.

If the events turn ugly, opposition to the president will only mount, particularly if he continues to throw political opponents in jail, including members of the Svoboda nationalists and Radical Party. The president is on a precarious path, we believe.