Ukraine courts sabotaging anti-corruption cases, Sytnyk says
21 August 2017
Ukraine’s court are engaged in a “complete sabotage”
of cases they receive from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the
Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, bureau director Artem Sytnyk
said in an interview on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published on Aug. 20. A
quarter of the cases haven’t been opened at all, he alleged, and the few
verdicts have only involved secondary figures in corruption cases. Among the
high profile cases, Sytnyk cited hearings in the charges against former MP
Oleksandr Onyshchenko, which occur once every two months when they should be
held daily to complete in three months. Sytnyk repeated his calls for the
creation of an independent Anti-Corruption Court but said legislative
initiatives are progressively getting more difficult to approve.
no reason to doubt Sytnyk’s claims. Their timing could be aimed at convincing
key Western officials to prevent President Poroshenko from succeeding in
avoiding the creation of an independent anti-corruption court, which is fully
backed by Ukraine’s NGO community and pro-Western reformers. It will be a
scandal if Poroshenko is allowed to bypass the court’s creation and secures the
next IMF tranche without it.
