The criminal case against Vitaliy Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, is being sent to court, Shabunin told the Kyiv Post on Jan. 23.
The center said that Shabunin’s lawyers had received the indictment for the case. Shabunin is accused of beating blogger Vsevolod Filimonenko, an aide to lawmaker Serhiy Melnychuk.
Olena Shcherban, a lawyer for the anti-graft watchdog, told the Kyiv Post the indictment would be sent to court on Jan. 24 or Jan. 25.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center also said on Jan. 23 that a separate tax evasion case against the anti-graft watchdog had been transferred to the Cherkasy Oblast prosecutor’s office.
Prosecutors on Jan. 15 also amended the charges against Shabunin, increasing the maximum term of punishment from three years in prison to five years. The article was changed to “assaulting a journalist,” since Filimonenko runs his own Glas Naroda (People’s Voice) citizen journalism project.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center and other anti-corruption activists say the case is part of a campaign by President Petro Poroshenko to intimidate and weaken civil society.
The Reanimation Package of Reforms on Jan. 19 urged the authorities to stop the political persecution of Shabunin, “one of the most well-known fighters against corruption.”
Shabunin was charged in August with beating Filimonenko. A Kyiv court decided not to impose travel restrictions on Shabunin and required him to inform the authorities about changes in his address or occupation.
On June 8, Filimonenko approached Shabunin when unknown people served him summons to a military enlistment office and started asking him questions about his military service. Shabunin then hit Filimonenko in the face, saying that it was payback for Filimonenko insulting Oleksandra Ustinova, an expert at the Anti-Corruption Action Center, and making her cry.
Filimonenko then attacked Shabunin with pepper spray.
Shabunin’s lawyers argue that medics had initially found no injuries to Filimonenko, and his injuries were recorded only two weeks after the June 8 incident in what they suspect to be a falsified examination.
Shabunin, who has been excused military service for health reasons, said that the summons to the enlistment office was part of a campaign by the authorities to discredit anti-corruption activists. Shabunin then visited the relevant enlistment office chief, who said he was not aware of the summons and confirmed to Shabunin he was not subject to being drafted.
Previously, activist Igor Piven threatened to take Shabunin to a military enlistment office by force. Piven is an aide to Serhiy Trigubenko, a lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, and an executive of National Interest, a non-governmental organization. National Interest has produced a propagandist film to smear the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Ustinova was approached by Filimonenko and other people upon returning to Kyiv from a recent holiday to Sri Lanka in May. Ustinova said they had asked her about the money she had spent on her trip.
She said then she believed the people had been hired by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, because the Anti-Corruption Action Center has sued the SBU for hiding its employees’ income declarations from the public and other state agencies.
Meanwhile, in December three activists of the AutoMaidan civil-society group 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.
They believe the case to be a vendetta by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. The charges were brought immediately after the AutoMaidan went to Lutsenko’s house on Dec. 9 to demand the prosecutor general’s resignation.
Meanwhile, beginning in January, anti-corruption activists are starting to file annual asset declarations identical to those of government officials.
There are no equivalents of such declarations for activists in the West. Non-governmental organizations and Western governments argue that such declarations will be used to discredit, intimidate and persecute anti-corruption activists.
