Two of the three suspects in the ‘backpack case’ have been informed of suspicion of embezzlement of Hr 14 million, the third is being delivered from Kharkiv to Kyiv, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has reported.
“Two persons detained by detectives of the National Academy of Sciences and prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) on October 31 have been notified of suspicion for committing a crime qualified under Part 5 of Article 139 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the context of the investigation of the so-called ‘backpack case’, in particular, Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine and another individual,” NABU reported on Facebook on October 31 evening.
Avakov earlier confirmed that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine searched the premises of his son Oleksandr. A number of media reported that searches are being conducted as part of the investigation into the purchase of backpacks for the Interior Ministry and the National Guard in late 2014 and early 2015, launched by the Internal Affairs Ministry in 2015. Later, the ex-adviser to the head of the Interior Ministry, leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, Illia Kiva, and MP Serhiy Leschenko of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc reported the detention of Oleksandr Avakov in Kyiv.
The agency also learnt about the detention of former deputy interior minister Serhiy Chebotar in the case, on which a search was conducted in Kharkiv on October 31.
On October 31, Avakov’s son was taken to NABU.
Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv will not consider the petition for choosing preventive measure against Oleksandr Avakov on October 31, the court spokesman, Yana Kvitchenko, has said.
Early in April 2015, MP Yuriy Levchenko accused Chebotar of involvement in corruption.
The deputy minister dismissed the accusations against him and stated that he considers them a planned provocation in order to discredit him and the Internal Affairs Ministry and stop the fight against corruption. He also reported threats addressed to him and addressed to his family members.
Subsequently, the chief of the ‘Our Money’ program on the ZIK channel, Denis Bihus, said that his TV crew was attacked near Chebotar’s house; journalists identified two of the three attackers.
On May 6, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Prevention and Combating Corruption demanded that the Interior Minister conduct an official investigation into the attack on journalists and remove Chebotar from his position during the investigation. At the same time, the head of the committee, Viktoria Siumar, said that the land plot where the incident occurred did not belong to Chebotar.
On May 13, 2015, resigned after the scandal with the journalistic investigation and was dismissed by a government order dated May 14, 2015.
At the same time, ex-head of the Main Investigation Department of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Vovk said on February 13, 2016 that he was not aware if there were hidden cameras in the office of the then deputy minister of internal affairs, Chebotar. He advised journalists send an official request to the SBU about Chebotar’s wiretapping.
At the same time, the journalist of the “Schemes” program Natalia Sedeletska suggested that the video allegedly secretly filmed on December 3, 2014 in Chebotar’s office and posted on YouTube at the end of January 2016 under nickname ‘Sans Corruption’, showing son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Oleksandr, probably agreeing with Chobotar on the supply of backpacks for police units is genuine.
“Wiretapping and video surveillance was installed at the request of the military prosecutor’s office by the SBU in Chebotar’s office, when he was Avakov’s first deputy. The military prosecutor’s office at the time already suspected Chebotar of [involvement in] corruption schemes and installed in his office this video surveillance,” Sedeletska said in a comment to one of Ukrainian TV channels. She noted that other parts of this video had already surfaced in the press.
