The main investigations department of Ukraine’s SBU State Security Service has closed a criminal case involving Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) head Nazar Kholodnytsky, who was suspected of divulging classified information about a pretrial investigation.
The department told the Kyiv-based Ukrayinska Pravda ezine that it had checked possible criminal liability by Kholodnytsky under Part 4 of Article 27 (types of accomplices), Part 2 of Article 384 (deliberate false testimony) and Part 1 of Article 387 (divulging information from a pretrial investigation or inquiry) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.
On December 29, 2018, an investigator from the department closed the criminal investigation for lack of a criminal offense committed by Kholodnytsky.
In March 2018, media cited a ‘source’ and reported that a listening device was put in Kholodnytsky’s office, possibly by the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), possibly affixed to the wall of a fish tank in the office.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko on March 26, 2018, confirmed that investigative actions involving Kholodnytsky were being taken.
On March 30, 2018, complaints against Kholodnytsky were sent to the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors (QDCP) for consideration.
Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk in turn listed proceedings the negative processes around which served as grounds for opening criminal proceedings against Head Kholodnytsky.
“This is a case of embezzlement by officials of the city hall in Odesa, cases opened under the application of acting Minister of Health Ulana Suprun over the fact of offering her a bribe, the case concerning the Golden Mandarin firm, which is affiliated with MP Lohvynsky [Heorhiy Lohvynsky from the People’s Front faction], probes into e-declarations of senior officials, investigations related to the business interests of the owner of a large agricultural holding. It is difficult to imagine what we could have heard if the records were kept not for four weeks, but four months..,” he said in an interview with the ZN.UA online publication.
Sytnyk said that the records made in the office of Kholodnytsky contain data on “the leakage of information about the preparations for searches to those people where these searches are to be carried out, about pressure on certain officials to make certain decisions.”
