The first deputy director of the NABU, Gizo Uglava, said he had filed a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity against the Anti-Corruption Action Center and personally the head of the board, Vitaliy Shabunin, demanding that he refute information about his involvement in the leak of data from the NABU pre-trial investigation. The AntAC responded to the accusations.
“I demand from the Anti-Corruption Action Center and personally from Vitaliy Shabunin to refute the false information spread against me about the alleged leakage of data from the NABU pre-trial investigation to the persons involved in one of the investigations
As you know, the AntAC and Shabunin launched a coordinated attack on NABU and Gizo Uglava when they lost influence on the anti-corruption agency, accusing him of allegedly leaking information. However, according to experts involved in the case, this information was leaked by detectives close to the AntAC and was specifically planned to discredit and possibly dismiss the Deputy Director of the Bureau.
In his public response to Uglava's lawsuit, Shabunin noted that the NABU deputy director's involvement in the leak was established in journalistic investigations, although none of them mentioned Uglava.
Civil society circles believe that the motives for the attack on the NABU are Shabunin's personal revenge and an attempt to increase his personal influence on the agency.