The dramatic detainment of Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov by detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) at Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport after a long absence from the country demonstrates why Ukraine desperately needs an anti-corruption court. While Trukhanov has long been suspected of mafia ties and involvement in multiple corrupt schemes, the Solomiansky District Court released Trukhanov without bail, instead of requiring only the personal guarantee of Poroshenko Bloc MP Dmytro Golubov.
Unfortunately, Trukhanov’s case represents the rule rather than the exception, since Ukraine’s corrupt judges routinely find ways of undermining NABU’s cases. A study from the Anticorruption Action Center (AntAC) and the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) discovered that judges use a wide variety of techniques—from denying search warrants to preserving official positions for people who are NABU suspects—to hinder NABU’s investigations. The results are clear: Despite sending 107 investigations to court since 2015, NABU hasn’t been unable to obtain any major convictions.
