Ukrainian civil society groups on May 14 are seeking U.S. sanctions on Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry declined to comment on the move.
The 20 organizations cited the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act, which allows U.S. authorities to block assets and impose visa bans on people who have committed human rights offenses or are involved in corruption schemes. They accused Avakov and Lutsenko of gross violations of human rights, sabotage of reforms, corruption and obstruction of justice — accusations the two men have denied.
Among the groups involved are the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the AutoMaidan anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International Ukraine, the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, the DeJure Foundation legal think-tank and the Bihus.info investigative journalism project. Another prominent group is Who Ordered Katya Gandziuk, which was set up to investigate the death of whistleblower Kateryna Gandziuk in November as a result of an acid attack.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center, the Who Ordered Katya Gandziuk civic initiative and AutoMaidan also held a rally on May 14 to demand the resignations of Lutsenko and Avakov. Dozens of protesters demonstrated in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry, with some of them scuffling with the police.
“Lutsenko and Avakov have turned the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry into a supermarket where law enforcement is merged with organized crime,” Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said at the rally.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center said in a statement that Lutsenko and Avakov are responsible for the failure of prosecution and police reforms.
“Lutsenko and Avakov monopolized the power of law enforcement agencies and took control over the old corrupt system while hiding behind ‘reforms’,” the watchdog said. “Police and the prosecution service have led corruption instead of fighting it.”
The anti-graft watchdog also said that more than 55 attacks on activists and journalists had been committed in Ukraine since 2017. Four of them are murders of Kateryna Gandziuk, Iryna Nozdrovska, Mykola Bychko and Vitaliy Oleshko, it added.
“The investigation of these murders and attacks is being sabotaged by the Prosecutor’s Office and the police in every possible way,” the Anti-Corruption Action Center said.
The watchdog also accused the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry of sabotaging cases against associates of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and the investigation into the murders of more than 100 protesters during the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
