Ukraine's Criminal Procedure Code to be amended: anti-corruption agencies may become dependent on prosecutor general

The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Committee on Law Enforcement has supported amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure that may make the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) – currently independent anti-corruption institutions – dependent on the decisions of the prosecutor general.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda sources in the law enforcement committee; the committee’s proposals with regard to draft law No. 12414

Details: At a meeting of the committee on the morning of 22 July, MPs recommended that parliament adopt draft law No. 12414, which provides for amendments to the Code, with committee proposals, at second reading.

Among other things, the parliamentarians proposed the adoption of the amended bill, as a result of which the prosecutor general will be able to:

• reassign the powers of a SAPO prosecutor to other prosecutors;
• request materials from any cases and reassign them to other prosecutors;
• issue binding written instructions to NABU;
• reassign NABU criminal proceedings to other pre-trial investigation bodies.

Committee chairman Serhii Ionushas, his first deputy Andrii Osadchuk, and the chair of the relevant subcommittee on criminal law and combating crime, Oleksandr Bakumov, were not present at the meeting.

Most of the committee members learned about the meeting and the decisions made at it after the fact.

The Verkhovna Rada may consider this bill at second reading at its session on 22 July. If the law is passed, the prosecutor general will become the de facto head of the SAPO prosecutors.

Background:

• On 21 July, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office conducted approximately 80 searches targeting 19 employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in various oblasts of Ukraine.
• The security forces did not have court warrants to carry out the searches, but they do not consider this a violation of the law because obtaining the warrants could have "caused information leaks" and " the conduct of special operations".
• The NABU detectives have been charged with treason, illegal trade with Russia, and corruption in the interests of oligarchs. Meanwhile, the State Bureau of Investigations has stepped up its efforts looking into materials on road accidents involving NABU employees that occurred several years ago.
• Representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General are also carrying out a check on state secrecy protection at SAPO. The check applies to NABU employees who have access to state secrets and the conduct of covert investigative actions.

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