{"id":58773,"date":"2016-08-18T22:12:35","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T22:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=46205"},"modified":"2017-03-08T14:12:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T12:12:00","slug":"46205-espanol-fiscal-genial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open competition for this post after president\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Viktor Shokin, failed as Prosecutor General. The society wasn\u2019t heard. Again. Moreover, the President suggested a person without the necessary education for this position. On May 12, 2016, a draft law specially tailored for this person on the post of Prosecutor General was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament in just four hours. These actions have evoked strong dissatisfaction among Ukrainians, as they greatly resemble the actions of the former ousted President.<\/em><\/p>\n

While getting in the office, Yuri Lutsenko promised to \u201cprogress in the work of the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office of Ukraine over the first 100 days\u201d. On August 19, 2016, it will be exactly 100 days of Lutsenko as Prosecutor General.\u00a0 Therefore, Ukraine Crisis Media Center (UCMC) decided to draw interim conclusions of his work and tried to understand if Lutsenko keeps to his promises.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Heavenly Hundred case: Filigree standing on the same point<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been now three years since the beginning of the investigation and trial on the shooting of Euromaidan activists. \u00a0The trial is back on the beginning stage. Presently, there are three more detained former soldiers of the riot police department \u201cBerkut\u201d. Overall, there are five former \u201cBerkut\u201d soldiers accused of shooting activists in February 2014. Uniting the criminal proceedings has brought the case back to the starting stage, but the prosecution started announcing the new version of the guilty act having finished all the legal procedures and questioning witnesses from all sides.<\/p>\n

The highest rank of Prosecutor General\u2019s Office is still out of reach for Ukrainian reforms. Commander of the \u201cBerkut\u2019s black company\u201d, Dmytro Sadovnyk, fled Ukraine with literally no interference of Ukrainian law enforcement authorities. Ex-president Yanukovych is in Moscow, and is not going to return to Ukraine. The court allowed the defense to hold questioning over Skype yet this option doesn\u2019t look real: putting all the legal details in order can take up to six months.<\/p>\n

This is convenient for the accused former \u201cBerkut\u201d soldiers. Next year, the current jury finishes its term and if the process is not over by then, the new jury will be appointed. Therefore, they will start reviewing the case from the very beginning, which is beneficial for the accused. No one knows how political landscape will change.<\/p>\n

The case with the activists killed in January 2014 is even worse. At the starting stage, the investigation chose a wrong way; thus, the trial is rather unlikely to identify and punish the guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Diamond Prosecutor\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Undoubtedly, the most notable case of corruption that attracted the most public attention occurred in July of 2015 when it was discovered that the Deputy Chief of Investigations Department at the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office, Volodymyr Shapakin and deputy prosecutor of the Kyiv Oblast, Oleksandr Koniets, took bribes. During the search of the prosecutors, the law enforcement officers found some USD 500.000, securities, weapons, and 65 diamonds, which gave the name for the case.<\/p>\n

Former deputies of the Prosecutor General, Viktor Shonkin, Vitaliy Kasko and Davit Sakvarelidze made statements that their boss himself covered up the case of the \u201cDiamond Prosecutor\u201d with the help of his other deputies Yuri Stolyarchik and Yuri Sevruk.<\/p>\n

In January of 2016, the court dismissed both the \u201cDiamond Prosecutors\u201d on bail.\u00a0 Then, in July, former deputy of the Prosecutor General, Vitaliy Kaso, announced the withdrawal of the seizure of Korniets\u2019 assets. Subsequently, Yuri Lutsenko announced the Office of the Prosecutor General will soon appeal this in addition to filing another case against the \u201cDiamond Prosecutors\u201d to the court.<\/p>\n

On August 15, the court has again postponed the meeting on the case of the \u201cDiamond Prosecutors\u201d for another week.<\/p>\n

The Untouchables<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole brigade\u2014Yuri Sevruk, Roman Govda, and Yuri Stolyarchuk\u2014strangled the court case of the \u201cDiamond Prosecutors\u201d with the arms and legs of Shokin and continue to operate as they always have.\u00a0 I don’t think that it\u2019s all their personal initiatives, the question is above \u2013 Shokin and Konenko (member of the parliament from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, who the former minister of Economy, Aivaras Abromavicius, accused of trying to appoint his own people in public companies),\u201d said Vitaliy Kasko.<\/p>\n

The new Prosecutor General immediately called for Yuri Sevruk and Roman Govda to leave the prosecution and for Yuri Stolyarchuk to display his objectivity and professionalism in the first 100 days.\u00a0 However, only in a perfect world, this story could happen.<\/p>\n

On July 6, Roman Govda was appointed as prosecutor of Kyiv city.\u00a0 It is difficult to determine the motivation behind Lutsenko\u2019s decision. \u00a0Govda became deputy prosecutor general in the investigation when his predecessor, Davit Sakvarlidze, became a bone in the throat of Shokin. Sakvarelidze was appointed to prosecutor general of the Odesa Oblast.\u00a0 The biggest accomplishment of Govda, other than his participation in the case of the \u201cDiamond Prosecutor,\u201d is his criminal case on the theft of UAH 38 billion (close to 1.4 million EUR).<\/p>\n

Yuri Sevruk also hasn\u2019t left the system either.\u00a0 After his release, he was appointed as vice rector at the Academy of Prosecution.\u00a0 Did the prosecutor general really think that Sevurk would change while being inspired by delirious prosecution students?\u00a0 Or would he strongly influence the minds of young people?<\/p>\n

\u201cParty of Regions\u201d in the dock<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oleksandr Yefremov was a part of the first string of former \u201cRegionals\u201d (member of the Party of Regions) arrested. However, he was not a newcomer called in this since his first visit to jail was in July 2014. Then, against the former head of the \u201cParty of Regions,\u201d court proceedings were opened in regards to separatist activities. However, the famous Perchersky court of Kyiv found \u201cno record of crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

This time around, Yefremov was arrested at the Kyiv Airport with a ticket to Vienna in his hand (surely going to visit his former colleague, Dmitry Firtash?) on July 30, 2016. Three charges were declared on Yefremov: separatism, misappropriation of public funds, and voting dictatorial laws (the package of laws taken on January 16, 2014, which limited the rights of citizens, the government then decided hand in punishment for those that don\u2019t agree with its actions. Additionally, the vote on these laws was taken by show of hands and there was not accurate counting of votes taken).\u00a0 After his arrest, Vitaliy Sabunin, Chairman of the Board at the \u201cAnti-Corruption Action Center\u201d, announced that in the Office of the Prosecutor General there is no evidence of this work other than the vote that took place on the January, 16.\u00a0 On the August 6, a video was released on the site, where Yefremov discussed his new illegitimate power.\u00a0 After his address to members of the parliament (MP), the regional council supported the referendum for the creation of the Luhansk People\u2019s Republic (\u2018LPR\u2019). All of this occurred with the tacit support of other MPs, the Governor of the oblast, and the Mayor of Luhansk.<\/p>\n

For the last 60 days, Yefremov was held under arrest for charges that were rejected by the court.<\/p>\n

Yefremov is also joined by another former \u201cRegional,\u201d Volodymyr Medyanyk.\u00a0 Their stories also don\u2019t really differ from each other\u2019s: separatism, financing and creating the \u2018Luhansk People\u2019s Republic\u2019, and also spending 60 days under arrest. The role of Medyanik is only more straightforward as he is nothing more than a statistician and a \u201chostage\u201d. All that they want from him is to get evidence against Yefremov. The Prosecutor General doesn\u2019t even try to hide this fact. Lutsenko already announced that Medyanyk \u201cin this moment is playing a positive role for the Ukrainian Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top winners from the Office of the Prosecutor General should have closed in on Oleksandr Onyshchenko, but he had time to escape Ukraine and move to London. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor carried out an investigation of the office of state company \u2018Ukrazvidohuyannya\u2019, which is associated with Onyshchenko, which was followed by the initiation removing his parliament immunity and the arrest of Onyshchenko.\u00a0 Former \u201cRegions\u201d threw embezzlement in the extraction along with the sale of natural gas for USD 1.6 billion. All of this occurred in June, 2016.<\/p>\n

On July 5, the Ukrainian Parliament voted for the removal of diplomatic immunity and called for the arrest of Onyshchenko, but at the time, he had already escaped from Ukraine.\u00a0 On the July 27, Yuri Lutsenko again signed the documents on suspicion of Onyshchenko before returning the documents to the NABU, citing their low quality and clarity.<\/p>\n

At first, the deputy expressed his willingness and openness to take part in the investigation, but only with Great Britain, and then he filed a case with the NABU and the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office, which later announced that Onyshchenko is wanted in Ukraine.\u00a0 The Office is also expected to announce its Interpol international wanted list later as well.\u00a0 The Prosecutor General\u2019s Office isn\u2019t excluding the fact that Onyshchenko may have fled to Russia, where his extradition back to Ukraine is impossible.\u00a0 Additionally, Onyshchenko has already visited Russia in early July.<\/p>\n

The Interim Verdict<\/strong><\/p>\n

On May 12, the President and Parliament of Ukraine showed that in the name of political will (or banal wishes) are able to work together to make necessary decisions in a short period of time. However, the problem is that these decisions are questionable in respect to their representation of public interest.\u00a0 Should this be the result that we have now? The cases of Heavenly Hundred Hero\u2019s and the \u201cDiamond Prosecutors\u201d haven\u2019t given new inspiration to Lutsenko and their previous support is not connected with the activities of the former prosecutor general. In the structure of the Office of the Prosecutor, there are untouchable people that are not strongly for the fight against corruption but rather wish to remain in the system to receive large sums of money. Taking note of the fact that they detained the leader of the \u201cParty of Regions,\u201d Yefremov, will most likely not be released. Although Lutsenko would have decided to work positively in the eyes of the public and although it may look as if the prosecutor general has taken steps in the right direction, we are left with one question: is it enough?<\/p>\n

\n\t\n\t\t\"\"\t\t\n\t\t\tView Gallery<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t3 images\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/figure>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open competition for this post after president\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Viktor Shokin, failed as Prosecutor General. The society wasn\u2019t heard. Again. Moreover, the President suggested a person without the necessary education for this position. On May 12, 2016, […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":58774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[705,748],"tags":[],"section":[743],"form":[],"yoast_head":"\nProsecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days | UACRISIS.ORG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days | UACRISIS.ORG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open | Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uacrisis.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uacrisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-18T22:12:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-08T12:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WEB_NN_8053-860x584.jpg.pagespeed.ce_.ewN9cgDH0T.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"860\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"584\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uacrisis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uacrisis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0417\u0430\u0445\u0430\u0440 \u0411\u0443\u0442\u043a\u043e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days | UACRISIS.ORG","description":"Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open | Uacrisis.org","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days | UACRISIS.ORG","og_description":"Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open | Uacrisis.org","og_url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial","og_site_name":"Uacrisis.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uacrisis\/","article_published_time":"2016-08-18T22:12:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-08T12:12:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":860,"height":584,"url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WEB_NN_8053-860x584.jpg.pagespeed.ce_.ewN9cgDH0T.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@uacrisis","twitter_site":"@uacrisis","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0417\u0430\u0445\u0430\u0440 \u0411\u0443\u0442\u043a\u043e","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#organization","name":"Ukraine crisis media center","url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uacrisis\/","http:\/\/youtube.com\/UACrisisMediaCenter","https:\/\/twitter.com\/uacrisis"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/header_logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/header_logo-1.png","width":250,"height":90,"caption":"Ukraine crisis media center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/","name":"Uacrisis.org","description":"Ukraine crisis media center","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WEB_NN_8053-860x584.jpg.pagespeed.ce_.ewN9cgDH0T.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WEB_NN_8053-860x584.jpg.pagespeed.ce_.ewN9cgDH0T.jpg","width":860,"height":584},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#webpage","url":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial","name":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days | UACRISIS.ORG","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-08-18T22:12:35+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-08T12:12:00+00:00","description":"Appointing Yuri Lutsenko, as Prosecutor General of Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko has made a precedent. However, civic society demanded open | Uacrisis.org","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0446\u0430","item":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/31691010a01129c86dc9dc11eebe8df9"},"headline":"Prosecutor Genius of Ukraine: First 100 days","datePublished":"2016-08-18T22:12:35+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-08T12:12:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#webpage"},"wordCount":1710,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/WEB_NN_8053-860x584.jpg.pagespeed.ce_.ewN9cgDH0T.jpg","articleSection":["Press release","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/46205-espanol-fiscal-genial#respond"]}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/uk\/#\/schema\/person\/31691010a01129c86dc9dc11eebe8df9","name":"\u0417\u0430\u0445\u0430\u0440 \u0411\u0443\u0442\u043a\u043e"}]}},"wps_subtitle":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58773"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=58773"},{"taxonomy":"form","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/form?post=58773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}