The Supreme Court considers the statement of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova in the case of the Surkis brothers’ deposits in PrivatBank (Kyiv) to be an interference with the Supreme Court, a means of influence and pressure to approve a decision in favor of one of the parties, according to a complaint addressed to the High Council of Justice and the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“On April 23, 2020 the Prosecutor General also announced her position as the position of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which actually opposed the judiciary to the society and the state as a whole. From the speech, one gets the feeling that the prosecutor, who has already determined who is right in this matter and who is not, is the only defender of the society and the state. In the conditions when the indignation of civil feelings and attempts to humiliate the court are evident around this case, such statements can hardly be considered acceptable,” the document says.
In addition, in their complaint, judges often mention the leader of the Democratic Axe (Demokratychna Sokyra) party, as well as the fans of FC Dynamo Kyiv and one of the members of the PrivatBank supervisory board.
As reported, with reference to Venediktova, the Office of the Prosecutor General is on the side of state-controlled PrivatBank, the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in a judicial dispute on the legality of converting the funds of the former owners of PrivatBank and related persons into the bank shares (bail-in).
