Reformer of the week – Sergei Hadzhynov
Sergei Hadzhynov, a top member of the AutoMaidan civil-society group, is facing a criminal case that he believes to be part of a political vendetta by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.
In December, Hadzhynov and AutoMaidan activists Oleh Pushak and Bohdan Melnyk were charged with throwing eggs at Oleh Barna, a lawmaker from the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, at an anti-government protest in July. They face between four and seven years in prison if convicted.
The charges were brought immediately after the AutoMaidan went to Lutsenko’s house on Dec. 9 to demand the prosecutor general’s resignation. The group said more than 300 cars took part – the largest AutoMaidan rally since the group went to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s estate in 2013.
Five police officers and 10 prosecutors are involved in the case against the AutoMaidan activists.
Since the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, the AutoMaidan has pushed for law enforcement reforms and defended anti-corruption institutions.
Other civic activists also face criminal prosecution. Prosecutors on Jan. 15 amended the charges against anti-corruption activist Vitaly Shabunin, increasing the maximum term of punishment from three years in prison, up to five years. Shabunin is accused of beating a blogger.
Anti-reformer of the week – Oleksandr Hovorushchak
Oleksandr Hovorushchak is one of the top prosecutors behind the confiscation of $1.5 billion from an alleged corruption scheme run by ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
The ruling on the confiscation, which was issued by a Kramatorsk Court in March 2017, was made secret by Hovorushchak and his colleagues Kostyantyn Kulik and Yaroslav Dombrovsky.
According to the secret ruling, which was published by Al Jazeera on Jan. 10, Poroshenko’s personal banker Makar Paseniuk and his former central bank chief Valeria Hontareva brokered for the offshore firms involved in the graft scheme. They deny the accusations, but their possible involvement in the scheme has not been investigated.
Lawyers and anti-corruption activists have argued that the ruling on the confiscation does not contain any evidence or legal grounds for the measure, and may result in Ukrainian authorities returning the confiscated funds to the offshore firms that held them.
In most episodes of the alleged $1.5 billion scheme, the text does not explain how the funds were embezzled, who was behind the corrupt cash flows and what financial transactions were carried out. Moreover, there are no court verdicts against any organizers of this scheme, which would provide legal grounds for the confiscation.
Meanwhile, in November Kyiv’s Pechersk Court allowed Hovorushchak, Kulik and Dombrovsky to seize the original of the Kramatorsk court ruling. Lawyer Oleksandr Ruzhansky thinks this is an attempt to destroy the original of the ruling as evidence of what he believes to be the prosecutors’ criminal activities.
Hovorushchak, Kulik and Dombrovsky are also leading a criminal case against former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has accused Saakashvili of accepting funding from fugitive oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, an ally of ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, to finance anti-government demonstrations and plot a coup d’etat.
Saakashvili believes that the case is a political vendetta by President Petro Poroshenko. The prosecutors’ alleged evidence against Saakashvili has been dismissed by independent lawyers as being very weak.
The Kyiv Court of Appeal is scheduled to consider placing Saakashvili under house arrest at 10 a.m. on Jan. 19.
Meanwhile, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal will consider rejecting Saakashvili’s application for political asylum on Jan. 22. Saakashvili says the authorities may use the court’s decision as an excuse to illegally deport or extradite him immediately after the hearing.
Saakashvili’s lawyers have argued that he cannot be deported or extradited regardless of the asylum status, since it is unlawful to deport or extradite permanent stateless residents of Ukraine. He also cannot be extradited or deported under the law because he is under investigation in a criminal case in Ukraine.
Pechersk Court judge Larysa Tsokol released Saakashvili from custody on Dec. 11.
She said the prosecutors had failed to provide evidence to justify placing any restrictions on Saakashvili. Tsokol also said that Saakashvili’s detention by the Security Service of Ukraine, prosecutors and police without a court warrant and other legal grounds on Dec. 5 was unlawful.
Kyiv Court of Appeal Judge Oleh Prysyazhnyuk, who will preside over the Jan. 19 hearing on Saakashvili’s house arrest, upheld the verdict in the criminal case against Lutsenko, then an opposition politician, in 2012. The Lutsenko case has been recognized as political by Ukrainian and European authorities.
