The criminal proceedings over an alleged sham adoption in which the Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau Semen Kryvonos was mentioned have been closed.
Acting Prosecutor General Anton Kovalskyi said this while speaking to journalists, Ukrainska Pravda reports.
Earlier, after the former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko fled, the Prosecutor General’s Office said that information claiming Kryvonos had been served with a notice of suspicion was untrue.
According to Kovalskyi, the entry in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations stating that the NABU director had been served with a notice of suspicion was removed because nothing had been served on him.
At the same time, the pre-trial investigation in the case continued for some time. Later, investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation decided to close the criminal proceedings.
“The pre-trial investigation continued for some time in the criminal proceedings. Subsequently, SBI investigators made a decision to close the said criminal proceedings.
The supervising prosecutor had 20 days to review the legality. Accordingly, the case materials were transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office. The supervising prosecutor reviewed the case materials for 20 days and found no grounds to overturn it. Neither my deputies nor I overturned the decision. Therefore, the case concerning the NABU director has been closed,” Kovalskyi said.
Read alsoThe Prosecutor General’s Office has completed an internal inquiry into former Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko
The acting Prosecutor General also said that he communicates with the head of NABU both by phone and in person. At the same time, he said they did not discuss this criminal case.
“We did not discuss the issue of this criminal case directly with him,” Kovalskyi noted.
On 5 September, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office uncovered a criminal organisation operating within the Prosecutor General’s Office that provided cover for illegal call centres in exchange for bribes. The main suspect in the case, dubbed “Carthage”, is Serhii Kropyva, a deputy head of one of the departments. He is currently being held in custody along with other suspects.
NABU and SAPO Operation “Carthage”: What We Know
On 5 September, NABU and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office uncovered a criminal organisation operating within the Prosecutor General’s Office that provided cover for illegal call centres in exchange for bribes. The main suspect in the case, dubbed “Carthage”, is Serhii Kropyva, a deputy head of one of the departments. He is currently being held in custody along with other suspects.
On 14 September, Kravchenko unexpectedly announced that he had signed a notice of suspicion for NABU Director Semen Kryvonos. It later emerged that he reported this only after leaving Ukraine on a “business trip” to Paris. Instead of Paris, the former official ultimately ended up in Austria — a country from which extradition to Ukraine is difficult.
Only after his departure did the President suspend him, and the Verkhovna Rada backed his full dismissal. The Prosecutor General’s Office is conducting an internal inquiry into the circumstances of his departure.
Soon after leaving, Kravchenko began making accusatory statements against the anti-corruption bodies and the President.
Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda reported that Kravchenko was in Austria. On 9 October, Austrian law enforcement detained the outlet’s representatives, journalist Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko. Their phones were taken and they were held for more than half a day; force was used against Bondarenko.
The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the arrest of Ukrainian journalist Mykhailo Tkach in Austria was not ordered because of his profession, but because he was seen at a location where two men suspected of espionage were also under surveillance.
In total, four Ukrainians were detained. The journalists were released, but the other two citizens — as of the publication of the news on 13 October — were not. Austrian law enforcement did not specify who exactly had been detained.
On 28 October, after a month of silence, Ruslan Kravchenko made his first public post, in which he accused NABU and SAPO of organising a group that allegedly intended to carry out violent actions against him. The Bureau rejected these accusations and called them an attempt to secure Kravchenko protection in the country where he is staying.