Parliament dismissed Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin with 289 votes on March 29, more than a month after he filed his resignation.
Shokin’s first deputy Yury Sevruk took over as acting prosecutor general.
Both Shokin, appointed by President Petro Poroshenko in February 2015, and Sevruk have been criticised by the public for failing to prosecute any major cases, including those on the murders of over 100 protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014. They also failed to prosecute the cronies of ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych.
As an example of Shokin’s sabotage of investigations,
Yegor Sobolev, a lawmaker from the Samopomich party, cited the release from custody on March 27 of Roman Zavorotny, who is
suspected of getting 408 assault rifles and 90,000 cartridges to organize the
killing of EuroMaidan protesters.
“This is the symbolic finale of Shokin’s work as
prosecutor general,” Sobolev said at a Verkhovna Rada meeting. “… He was appointed to cover up for top
corrupt officials and derail the EuroMaidan cases.”
Mustafa Nayyem, a lawmaker from the Poroshenko Bloc, said at the Rada meeting that Shokin should be not only fired but also prosecuted if
there is evidence of his sabotage of investigations and protection of corrupt
officials.
The failure of investigations not only spoils Shokin’s image but also dents Poroshenko’s reputation, he said.
Nayyem also said that a potential replacement for
Shokin being discussed in parliament is First Deputy Justice Minister Natalia
Sevastianova, who would represent Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party.
Other reported candidates for the prosecutor general’s
job are Sevruk, Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk and Deputy Prosecutor General Roman Hovda.
Hovda came into the limelight in June, when Odesa
Oblast Governor Mikhail Saakashvili accused him, then the region’s top
prosecutor, of cracking down on businesses in Odesa Oblast and scaring
investors. In September, Hovda was fired and appointed as a deputy of Shokin.
Hovda
has also been lambasted for supervising the Interior Ministry’s activities
during crackdowns on EuroMaidan protestors in 2013-2014 and accused of failing
to investigate corruption cases in the past.
Many lawmakers argued that the only way to reform the
notoriously corrupt prosecution service is to appoint a prosecutor general
independent from Poroshenko and other authorities.
“The prosecutor general’s name is Poroshenko,” Ihor
Lutsenko, a lawmaker from the Batkyvshchyna party, said. “We must do our best
to change this name at last in order to launch systemic changes at the
prosecutor’s office. “
Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party, agreed,
saying that “only a prosecutor general independent from political influence can
carry out a reform.”
Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,
welcomed Shokin’s dismissal and said that the continuation of Western aid for
Ukraine would depend on whether Shokin’s replacement is committed to reform and
trusted by society.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk
shocked the public when he said in a March 28 Ukrainska Pravda interview that Pyatt could be questioned as part of an
embezzlement case. Critics say the case is Shokin’s political vendetta against
ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze and anti-corruption activist Vitaly Shabunin.
Shokin fired Sakvarelidze two hours before the parliament was set to consider his resignation.
Sakvarelidze had accused Shokin and his deputies of sabotaging efforts to prosecute two top prosecutors arrested on bribery charges in 2015. For that, Sakvarelidze said, Shokin and his team were taking their revenge on him.
Shokin submitted his resignation on Feb. 16, the same day the government of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk unexpectedly survived a vote of no-confidence in parliament. Reformist lawmakers said after the vote that Yatsenyuk’s government had survived because lawmakers from the pro-presidential Bloc of Petro Poroshenko had failed to vote.
The firing of Shokin has been a condition for Ukraine to get a $1 billion loan from the U.S. government, according to several Ukrainian media, citing their own sources. The issue of the loan was also mentioned by several lawmakers during the debate in parliament on Shokin’s dismissal on March 29.
The dismissal of Shokin took place a day before Poroshenko was scheduled to visit to the United States.
Civil activists in Ukraine have long complained that the post of prosecutor general is an overly politicized position, that can be used by the president both to stifle investigations into political allies, and launch criminal cases on political foes.
Shokin is the third prosecutor general of Ukraine appointed after the EuroMaidan Revolution. His predecessors all attracted opposition from civil activists.
In the latest rally concerning the prosecutor general’s post, about 200 protesters rallied on March 28 in front of the Presidential Administration to demand the appointment of an independent prosecutor general.
The speakers at the rally criticized Shokin’s deputies Yury Sevruk and Yury Stolyarchuk, who are being considered as a replacement for Shokin. Both are protégés of Shokin and are seen as loyal to Poroshenko.
“If Shokin is replaced with Stolyarchuk or Sevruk, there’s no point in replacing him,” Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s management board, said at the protest.
Sergii Leshchenko, a reformist lawmaker from the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, said at the rally that Sevruk and Stolyarchuk had been sabotaging corruption cases against Verkhovna Rada member Yury Boiko and the Katsub brothers, ex-top executives of state oil and gas company Naftogaz.
The Prosecutor General’s Office denies the accusations.
