Over the past two years, law enforcement agencies have opened more than 4,600 criminal proceedings for abuse of power or authority by law enforcement officers. But only 99 cases were brought to court. This was reported to UNN by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
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According to the response of the PGO to the UNN request, from January to December 2022, law enforcement officers registered 1690 criminal proceedings under Article 365 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power or authority by a law enforcement officer). During the same period in 2023, 1761 such cases were registered. In January-September of this year, 1158 such criminal proceedings were registered.
At the same time, between January 2022 and September 2024, investigators closed more than 1,200 criminal proceedings opened under Article 365 of the CCU. At the same time, only 99 criminal proceedings were submitted to the court for consideration on the merits during this period.
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One of the cases included in the statistics of the Prosecutor General's Office is the criminal proceedings against the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Yevhen Sokur. This criminal proceeding was opened on November 4, 2022, under Part 3 of Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, on the fact of abuse of power by Sokur, who signed an order on October 26, 2022, to revoke the license of PJSC Ukrtatnafta for the production of fuel. Such actions of the official, according to the investigation, caused serious consequences for the company and the state in the form of the inability to fulfill the mobilization tasks of the Ministry of Defense for the production and supply of petroleum products for the needs of defense and defense capability of the state. The State Bureau of Investigation told UNN that this criminal proceeding is still under investigation.
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In addition, according to UNN, the acting deputy head of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, Yevhen Sokur, entered allegedly false information in his 2023 declaration. In particular, he did not indicate in the document the information about his partner. During the investigation into the case of an alleged attempted assassination attempt, Sokur himself told law enforcement officers that since 2016 he had been living with a girl named Alina in an apartment at 6-D Lobanovskoho Avenue. Following a deputy appeal by Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, the NACP launched an investigation into Yevhen Sokur. In response to a request from UNN, the Agency also confirmed that they are monitoring the official's lifestyle. Kateryna Butko, head of the Public Council at the NACP, noted that the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption is checking whether Sokur and his live-in girlfriend Alina had a common life.
Also, in 2022, he declared income from the sale of securities in the amount of almost UAH 2.6 million, but these funds were not reflected in his declaration for 2023. This may indicate a violation of the law requiring notification of significant changes in property status. According to Article 52 of the Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption," the declarant is obliged to report such changes within 10 days. According to Oleksandr Zolotukhin, a member of the National Bar Association, the official may try to explain why he did not declare these expenses by saying that he leads a lifestyle and, for example, likes to eat out.