NABU Director Semen Kryvonos announced the interrogation of about 1,500 ATO soldiers under the classification of investigation secrecy. This is stated in the bureau's response to a request from UNN.
This is a criminal case in which NABU detectives accuse the military of allegedly illegally privatizing land plots in Sumy Oblast. According to the bureau, these lands were allegedly used by the National Agrarian Academy, but in the absence of official documents from the Academy, they became the property of ATO soldiers. The same case involves former Minister of Agricultural Policy Mykola Solsky. According to detectives, it was he who, as a lawyer, helped ATO fighters obtain these land plots eight years ago.
Despite the fact that the reasonable terms of the investigation of this case have already expired, and NABU is now extending it through the court, detectives plan to interrogate thousands of military personnel who received these lands. However, it is unknown whether they have done so.
"Premature and uncontrolled disclosure of pre-trial investigation information may not only affect its course, impede the completeness and objectivity of establishing the circumstances of a criminal offense, but also harm the interests of the victim, suspect and other participants in criminal proceedings. In view of the above, it is currently not possible to provide the requested information," the NABU said, commenting on the interrogation of the ATO soldiers.
Anti-corruption officials also refused to say whether all ATO soldiers are going to be interrogated as part of the investigation. After all, it is obvious that most of them are currently at war, and interrogations of more than a thousand people could drag out the investigation for years.
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The Supreme Court and expert examinations ruled that the NABU's accusations were false, because the land plots in question did not belong to the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences and could therefore have been privatized by the ATO military on legal grounds, under the right granted to them by the state.
At the same time, detectives tried to conceal and cancel the examination ordered by the NABU in this case. There is a possibility that it could have testified to the innocence of Solsky and the ATO soldiers.