Yuriy Lutsenko
Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko has not kept his promise to fire the head of a controversial department accused of fabricating political cases and to get rid of political influence at the prosecutor’s office.
He merely renamed the department earlier this month, retaining its controversial leadership – who are suspected to have ties to lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, top allies of President Petro Poroshenko.
Lutsenko, ex-leader of the Poroshenko Bloc’s faction, has further politicized his office and undermined its independence by staffing it with pro-government lawmakers. These include Deputy Prosecutor General Dmytro Storozhuk from the People’s Front and Petro Shkutyak from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko.
Nor has Lutsenko kept his promise to fire top officials who served ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, as required under the lustration law. He has also failed to dismiss several top loyalists of discredited ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, and re-instate reformist prosecutors. –
– Oleg Sukhov
