The National Bar Association of Ukraine called for ensuring the impossibility of any external pressure on the self-governing bodies of the prosecutor's office and the Prosecutor General, so that the activities of the competition commission for the selection of the deputy head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office would be independent, transparent and impartial, writes UNN.
The commission included lawyer, head of the NAUU Committee on Lobbying and spokesman for the National Bar Association of Ukraine Oleksiy Shevchuk.
"The involvement of the head of the NAUU Committee in the process of selecting the leadership of the SAP emphasizes the importance of the professional expertise of the legal community in matters of building an anti-corruption vertical, even in cases where the appointment is made under the quota of the prosecutor's office.
At the same time, the National Bar Association of Ukraine, as the only professional organization uniting the bar of Ukraine, emphasizes: any pressure on lawyers, as well as their identification with clients, is unacceptable and contradicts the basic guarantees of the right to defense," the NAUU stated, in the context of critical statements against Shevchuk appearing in the media.
The NAUU welcomed the decision of the Council of Prosecutors of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General to appoint the speaker of the National Bar Association of Ukraine to the competition commission authorized to select candidates from among prosecutors for vacant administrative positions in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office.
"At the same time, the NAUU emphasizes that any media attacks, smear campaigns and dissemination of false information about candidates are unacceptable, undermine trust in competitive procedures and contradict the democratic principles of civil society.
The National Bar Association of Ukraine calls for ensuring the impossibility of any external pressure on the self-governing bodies of the prosecutor's office and the Prosecutor General, so that the activities of the competition commission are independent, transparent and impartial," the Association's statement reads.
Recall
On November 27, 2025, the Council of Prosecutors of Ukraine (CPU) announced the start of the formation of the Competition Commission, which will hold an open competition for the position of Deputy Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). All interested parties could submit their candidacies by December 4. After the selection of candidates for commission members, their list is submitted by the Council of Prosecutors for approval by the Prosecutor General.