The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has found no elements of crime in bribe allegations in relation to the appointment of Concern RRT chief, Volodymyr Ischuk, which mention Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk. It was a court's decision to register the criminal case regarding the bribe, said prosecutor Vladyslav Kutsenko, of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.
“We had a letter from deputy Kaplin [independent parliamentarian Serhiy Kaplin] alleging that such circumstances [the bribe given during the appointment of the RRT chief] took place. Under the Criminal Proceedings Code, it was entered in the Uniform Register of Pre-trial Investigations, and assigned a number. After that, the prosecutor’s office summoned Kaplin for questioning, so that he could give us evidence about the circumstances he reported in the letter. Unfortunately, he did not react to our invitation and gave no explanations,” Kutsenko said on the 112.Ukraine television channel on Wednesday.
The prosecutors also summoned Dmytro Dobrodomov, a member of the parliamentary anti-corruption committee, who had filed a relevant query with the Prosecutor General’s Office but did not turn up, the prosecutor said.
The case was registered by prosecutors at the court’s decision, it was not their decision, Kutsenko said. “As soon as it arrived here at the prosecutor’s office, prosecutors saw no elements of crime in it, but the court decided to compel us to register it,” Kutsenko said.
“Sevruk’s [Acting Prosecutor General Yuriy Sevruk] reply [to Dobrodomov’s parliamentary query] clearly notes that the case is factual, i.e., post factum. And he replied to Dobrodomov that the case does exist, it has been registered, but is factual, i.e., we brought no charges against Arseniy Yatsenyuk,” Kutsenko said.
It was reported that, in response to independent parliamentarian Dobrodomov’s query, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed that a criminal case was registered over allegations that Prime Minister Yatsenyuk received a $3 million bribe for the appointment of Ischuk as the head of Concern RRT.
