President Volodymyr Zelensky on Oct. 10 said he had set a goal for law enforcers to show results in some high-profile cases before the end of this year.
Progress in corruption cases and other major investigations has been a key issue for Zelensky because one of the slogans of his presidential campaign hinted that corrupt officials would be jailed immediately after he is elected on April 21 – “as soon as spring comes.” However, no major convictions have taken place since then.
Zelensky said during a news conference that he had set a goal for law enforcers to “show results” in several high-profile criminal cases by Nov. 1, 2019, or by Jan. 1, 2020 at the latest.
“I told them ‘by the end of the year” but Nov. 1 is a key deadline,” he said. “In several high-profile cases that we have discussed at meetings they must demonstrate results.”
However, this is not the first deadline set by Zelensky for law enforcers. The previous deadline expired in late August.
In late May Zelensky met with Artem Sytnyk, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnyutsky, and gave them three months to show results.
If they do not show results, Zelensky will submit to parliament a bill to re-launch the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office and the NABU, Ruslan Riaboshapka, who is currently prosecutor general, said in June.
Later on – on July 17 – Zelensky hinted he wanted to replace the leadership of law enforcement agencies due to their lack of political will to investigate high-profile cases.
Interference?
Zelensky also complained that whenever he tried to make law enforcement and anti-corruption efforts more efficient, he was being told that he had no right to interfere with law enforcement.
“When I got elected, I thought that we would have all corrupt officials jailed on the second day,” he said. “But the president has no right to interfere.”
He said, however, that he had a right to hold meetings with top law enforcers and consult with them.
“If there is a bandit who’s going around and I’m told this person kills and lies and used to be a lawmaker, do I have a right to ask why such people are not being jailed?” Zelensky wondered.
Zelensky also argued that he had sped up the adoption of legislation to make law enforcement more effective – such as a law that aims to cleanse the prosecution service.
Sheremet case
Zelensky avoided directly answering a question on a lack of progress in the investigation into the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet in a car explosion in Kyiv on 20 July 2016. Not a single suspect in the murder has been identified so far.
“I’m working on Sheremet,” he said nervously. “I’m being treated as the main policeman, the main prosecutor, the head of the security service… Understand me, I’m just a man!”
The Sheremet case has been pursued by Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s police.
On July 23, Zelensky claimed at a news conference that a lot of progress in the case had been made and praised the investigators. However, no results have been announced since then, and no suspects have been found.
EuroMaidan cases
Zelensky said he had met with Sergii Gorbatuk, the top investigator in charge of cases into the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, including the murder of more than 100 protesters.
“I wondered whether there would be final results at any time in those cases,” he said. “He said ‘it will take years’. And I told him: ‘what does the president have to do to make it faster than years? Five years have already passed. What is needed? More prosecutors, more independence (for the investigators and prosecutors) or who else should you be protected from’?”
Investigators and lawyers warn that the EuroMaidan investigations may collapse. A restructuring of the EuroMaidan unit under previous Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko sidelined investigators and prosecutors trusted by civil society, including Sergii Gorbatuk and Oleksiy Donsky. Donsky has been fired, and Gorbatuk’s powers are set to expire in November.
Meanwhile, officials accused by investigators of blocking EuroMaidan cases, including ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Serhiy Kiz and his proteges, were put in charge of the investigations. Kiz did not respond to a request for comment.
Ryaboshapka has fired Kiz but has not yet appointed any trustworthy officials to oversee EuroMaidan cases, and Kiz proteges, including Maksym Ryabenko and Viktor Mysyak, are still in charge of them.
Pashynsky case
Zelensky also commented on the Oct. 7 arrest of Serhiy Pashynsky, a former lawmaker from the People’s Front party, without the right of bail. The arrest order that extends until Dec. 4 is for wounding a man with a gun on New Year’s Eve 2016 as a result of an argument about driving.
Pashynsky and his lawyers argued that he had been arrested with blatant procedural violations.
“Is it bad that he was arrested? People on Facebook say it is,” Zelensky said. “… ask people in the street whether Pashynsky is a bandit, and I guarantee you 100 percent that 100 people out of 100 will say he is.”
Avakov controversy
Zelensky also commented on the re-appointment of Avakov as interior minister in August.
“This is not a compromise, I don’t owe him anything,” Zelensky said about Avakov. “This is, to be honest, a probation period, we want to see new faces at the Interior Ministry.”
He added that if there are no results by the end of this year, some people would be fired. He didn’t specify if he meant firing Avakov specifically.
As many as 24 civil society groups and anti-corruption watchdogs urged Zelensky and the Rada not to re-appoint Avakov in August.
“Avakov is associated with the old policy of corruption and hypocrisy,” they said in a joint statement. “Avakov is responsible for failing to reform the police, sabotaging the vetting of police officers, keeping tainted police officials and suspects in EuroMaidan cases in key jobs, failing to investigate attacks on civic activists and numerous corruption scandals linked to him and his inner circle.”
Avakov has denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
