Oleksandr Korniets, who was arrested in early July in a bribery case, has gained such notoriety that he now goes by the nickname of “The Diamond Prosecutor.” He is seen by critics as the epitome of corruption.
Following his arrest in a sting operation, 104 cut diamonds were found
in his house – thus the nickname. He has also managed to acquire, on his modest
prosecutor’s salary, 12 hectares of land in Kyiv Oblast, and has 24 real estate
deeds registered to frontmen and businesses formally owned by his sister – a
list provided by Yury Butusov, chief editor of the censor.net news site.
But now Korniets has walked free.
He was released on July 30 after one of his lawyers, Lyudmila
Ivanchik, paid Hr 3.2 million bail, Viktor Petrunenko, another of Korniyets’
lawyers, said on July 31.
Critics argue that the release of Korniyets, an ex-deputy head of
the Kyiv Oblast prosecutor’s office, and many other suspects in corruption
cases before him, demonstrates how dysfunctional and inefficient Ukraine’s law
enforcement system is. They say that judges, who have changed little since
ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s era, may be the weakest link and are
sabotaging any efforts to fight corruption.
Korniyets and Volodymyr Shapakin, a deputy of the Prosecutor
General’s Office’s main investigative department, were arrested in a sting
operation organized by Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze and the Security
Service of Ukraine (SBU) on July 6. The SBU said then that “many pieces of
jewelry,” 65 diamonds and an AK-47 assault rifle had been found in Korniyets’
office and house.
Lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem wrote then that some $500,000 in cash and
certificates of deposit worth Hr 800,000 had been also found during the
searches at the prosecutors’ offices and houses.
The arrests triggered a scandal when evidence emerged that
Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin and his deputies Volodymyr Huzyr and Yury
Stolyarchuk were trying to pressure Sakvarelidze’s investigators to halt the
case against Korniyets and Shapakin. Though Shokin and Huzyr deny this, the
latter had to resign on July 28 amid the public uproar.
According to Nayyem, Korniyets and Shapakin are
protégés of Shokin and Huzyr.
Kyiv’s Pechersk Court allowed Korniets and Shapakin to be released
on Hr 3.2 million bail in early July. On July 9, Shapakin paid the money and
got out, while Korniets remained behind bars for some time before being freed
on July 30.
On July 21, the Kyiv Court of Appeals increased the bail for
Shapakin to Hr 6.4 million, and he was released again after paying the second
bail.
These decisions were preceded by a long list of similar incidents
when courts released officials accused of corruption and Yanukovych allies.
On July 30, the Pechersk Court allowed ex-Justice Minister
Oleksandr Lavrinovich, who is accused of embezzling Hr 8.5 million, to be
released on Hr 1.218 million bail.
In April Serhiy Bochkovsky, ex-chief of the State Emergency
Service, and his deputy Vasyl Stoyetsky, who are accused of embezzling Hr 1.16
million, were released after paying Hr 1.2 million each.
Oleksandr Yefremov, an ex-lawmaker and Yanykovych ally, was
arrested on abuse of power and document forgery charges in February and then
released on Hr 3.6 million bail. In the same month, he was arrested again on
charges of inciting ethnic hatred and got out of the detention facility on
miniscule Hr 60,900 bail and is currently under house arrest.
Other suspects have even managed to escape justice completely.
Anton Chernushenko, ex-head of the Kyiv Court of Appeals, and Verkhovna Rada
member Serhiy Klyuyev, who both face corruption charges, fled Ukraine in June.
Alexei Kot, a managing partner of Ukrainian law firm Antika, told the Kyiv Post by phone that
one of the problems is imperfect legislation that allows officials accused of
corruption to get off easy.
The Verkhovna Rada has been considering a bill to abolish bail for
corruption cases since January but no progress has yet been made on the
legislation.
Another problem is the imperfect work of prosecutors. “Our
prosecutors must get used to the fact that not only defense lawyers must work
and prove the innocence of their client, but prosecutors must also prove by
using all their tools that the size of bail must be appropriate,” Kot said.
Critics also accuse judges of making unjustified decisions due to
either incompetence or corruption. Not a single judge has been fired under
Ukraine’s lustration law, which envisages firing Yanukovych-era officials, and
the court system remains largely unreformed.
Courts often set bail that is much less than what a suspect can afford.
Sergei Grebenyuk, a co-head of criminal law practice at Egorov,
Puginski, Afansiev and Partners, told the Kyiv Post that courts must set the
size of bail linked to suspects’ wealth.
“Why don’t they make such decisions?” Grebenyuk
asked. “There are two reasons: either
law enforcement agencies (prosecutors and the police) don’t do their work
properly, or courts make incorrect decisions due to certain circumstances or
some influence.”
Western practice differs from that of Ukrainian courts. In March
2014 an Austrian court released Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian tycoon accused of
corruption, on 125 million euros bail, compared to the equivalent of 137,000
euros in the Korniyets case.
The courts’ decisions to release Korniyets and Shapakin on
medium-sized bail have caused public indignation, given the immense wealth investigators
found in their possession.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that, after suspects are
released, Ukrainian authorities are often unable to track them and de facto
allow them to flee, Kot said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be
reached at reaganx84@gmail.
