In the case of Petro Olenych, who previously held the position of Deputy Chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration, the completion of the pre-trial investigation was announced back on January 19; however, it is currently unknown when the case will reach the court. The defense states that they are gaining access to the materials of the criminal proceedings in accordance with Article 290 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, but not in full, reports UNN.
Attorney Yevhen Solodko, representing the interests of Petro Olenych, claims systematic obstruction by NABU detectives: the case materials are being released in small portions, their total volume is still being concealed, and "spyware" was discovered on one of the transferred data storage devices. The lawyer insists that the investigation is completed de jure, but continues de facto.
Back in March, we filed a statement with the SBI regarding the commission of a criminal offense by a NABU detective under Part 2 of Article 397 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. We convinced the SBI that the NABU detective obstructed the lawful activities of a defense attorney in providing legal assistance by using his official position. And so, on May 5, the SBI entered the relevant information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations and began a pre-trial investigation
He noted that as of May 28, Olenych's defense had gained access to only 92 volumes of the criminal proceedings with the corresponding annexes — audio and video materials totaling about 10 terabytes. At the same time, the total number of volumes remains unknown:
Previously, they spoke of 108 volumes, now it's 114. How their number increased after the investigation ended is unclear to us. NABU detectives avoid answering direct questions
According to him, such disregard for their direct duties by NABU detectives makes it impossible to prepare for the trial.
Just listening to and viewing the materials of covert investigative (search) actions (CISAs) with a volume of 1 terabyte requires at least 10,000 working hours. The total volume of materials is over 10 terabytes, which is about 100,000 hours. With an 8-hour workday, this is more than 12,000 working days, or 520 months, or 43 years. Of course, these calculations are conditional, but they vividly characterize the volume of work that the defense must perform
He emphasized that the prosecution has no right to restrict the defense's access to materials, as Article 290 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine explicitly obliges the prosecution to disclose all materials of the proceedings. In his opinion, the prosecution is artificially creating obstacles for the defense, thereby deliberately violating the principles of the adversarial nature of criminal proceedings.
Moreover, there are the rights of the lawyer, which are derived from the rights of his client in accordance with Article 42 of the CPC. And they are also being violated by the prosecution. The question arises: how many materials have been disclosed to us, and is a process of falsifying the evidence base occurring during the delay in their release? There were already many questions regarding the materials received, and now their number has increased due to the presence of spyware
In addition, according to Solodko, Petro Olenych's case may have a political undertone given the conflict between the Kyiv City State Administration and the Office of the President.
The whole country knows that there is a political conflict between the KCSA and Bankova. Therefore, any criminal prosecution related to the KCSA or its officials — current or former — a priori raises reasonable doubts about its true purpose. In our case, we see such signs. Secondly, the lack of recording of court hearings, which is mandatory under Article 27 of the CPC, and a violation of this requirement entails the invalidity of the relevant procedural decisions. Thirdly, the announcement of the completion of the pre-trial investigation before the actual formation of all volumes of the case — which indicates that de jure the investigation is closed, but de facto work on the materials continues
As a reminder, in February 2025, Petro Olenych, who at that time held the position of Deputy Chairman of the KCSA for the exercise of self-governing powers in the field of digital development, was notified of suspicion as part of the NABU's "Clean City" operation.