Reformer of the week – Nadiya Bugrova
Nadiya Bugrova, a forensic expert, said in a Feb. 7 interview with the Schemes investigative show that she faces revenge by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for an assessment in a graft case against his son Oleksandr.
Interior Ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2017 Oleksandr Avakov, Avakov’s ex-deputy Serhiy Chebotar and alleged mediator Volodymyr Lytvyn were charged with embezzling Hr 14.5 million in a case related to the supply of backpacks to the Interior Ministry. The suspects deny the accusations.
Bugrova made the conclusion that the backpacks contained defects and were overpriced.
In 2018 the National Police, which is subordinate to Avakov’s ministry, started an investigation against Bugrova, accusing her of “embezzling” the Hr 5,000 she received for the assessment, and of incorrectly assessing the backpacks and underestimating their true value. Bugrova called the probe a political vendetta for her part in investigating the Oleksandr Avakov case.
In July Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky’s office said it had closed the embezzlement case against Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar.
The anti-corruption prosecutor’s office said that Lytvyn had pled guilty to fraud and document forgery and given testimony that Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar had not been involved in the scheme. This version contradicts the video footage investigated by NABU in which Chebotar and Oleksandr Avakov negotiate the corrupt deal.
Anti-graft activists argued that Kholodnytsky, who has been accused of blocking and sabotaging NABU cases, had reached a deal with Avakov and other top officials, to keep his job in exchange for closing the Avakov case. Kholodnytsky’s office denied the accusations.
Oleksandr Avakov and ex-Deputy Interior Minister Chebotar discuss a corrupt deal to supply backpacks.
Anti-reformer of the week – Volodymyr Babenko
The Supreme Court’s Grand Chamber on Feb. 12 canceled the High Qualification Commission of Judges’ 2017 decision to fire Volodymyr Babenko, chairman of Cherkasy Oblast’s Court of Appeal.
And members of the Public Integrity Council, the judiciary’s civil society watchdog, argue that this decision shows the ultimate failure of judicial reform.
The Grand Chamber canceled the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling to uphold Babenko’s dismissal. To escape being fired, he voluntarily quit in 2017, but the High Council of Justice did not accept his resignation, and he still remains in his job.
In 2015 Serhiy Bondarenko, a judge of Cherkasy Oblast’s Court of Appeal, released a recording of Babenko pressuring him to make an unlawful decision in 2013. Babenko is being investigated in a criminal case for this.
Meanwhile, Sergiy Gorbatuk, head of the department for trials in absentia at the Prosecutor General’s Office, wrote in 2018 that Babenko was under investigation on charges of embezzlement and issuing unlawful rulings against EuroMaidan demonstrators.
However, Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk refused to approve a notice of suspicion for Babenko and then took the embezzlement case away from Gorbatuk’s department, Gorbatuk wrote. AutoMaidan lawyer Roman Maselko believes this to be an effort to cover up for Babenko.
Gorbatuk filed a complaint with Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, accusing Stolyarchuk of committing a crime by unlawfully interfering with his department. The Prosecutor General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Babenko denies the accusations of wrongdoing. He argued in a response to the Kyiv Post that unidentified people wanted to replace his court’s leadership.
