Former SAP prosecutor: agreements concluded by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office must be open and approved by the Prosecutor General

Former prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) Stanislav Bronytskyi, who worked at SAP for four years, criticized the agreements that this anti-corruption body concludes with individuals involved in criminal proceedings for their secrecy from society. He also expressed the opinion that these agreements should be approved by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, reports UNN with reference to Bronytskyi's interview in the program "Shadows of Big Money."

"If we work openly, then these agreements should be open. Please show them to people, let people, the expert community, lawyers, attorneys, other prosecutors look at these documents and express their opinion. Are they good, good or bad? Do they meet the requirements of the law, the requirements of justice, which society talks about? (...) For example, in my opinion, it would be appropriate to propose such a discussion in the professional environment if the Prosecutor General approved the agreements concluded, for example, by the SAP prosecutor and approved by the head of the SAP.

Let the signature of the Prosecutor General on this agreement be an additional filter or an additional safeguard. Why not? This is not interference with independence and autonomy. In my opinion, no," Bronytskyi believes.

As an example of questionable agreements, he cited the agreement concluded in the case of the seizure of the property complex of Odesa Airport, the so-called "Kaufman-Hranovskyi" case.

"An agreement on plea bargaining has been approved. The airport remained, in my opinion, under the control of the defendants in the criminal proceedings. A rather dubious agreement, which was actually the reason for my publicity. This criminal proceeding resulted in the dismissal of the detective who conducted the pre-trial investigation. A case during which we experienced unprecedented pressure, but (...) the airport is physically where it was, and in reality, if the war ends tomorrow, if flights and connections resume tomorrow, then the income from the activities of this airport will be received by the LLC, which is under the control of the defendants. In my opinion," Bronytskyi emphasized.

He reminded that the people who committed the crime of seizing the airport and creating a criminal group were sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment, but in reality received one year of probation.

Bronytskyi emphasized that today the SAP is a completely closed structure from society, which makes decisions and does not conduct any real communication regarding these decisions. In addition, no real audit of the SAP has been conducted since 2015.

"What do we have? We have as a result, there will be more, there will be more, there will be more. Ellipses under every single case. Except for those where dubious agreements have been approved. That's all (...) It shouldn't have been like that. And it shouldn't be happening," added the former prosecutor.

He also emphasized that NABU and SAP operate in conditions of absolute lack of control over their activities.

Because in fact, if we talk about the internal processes in SAP and NABU and refer to the relevant laws, we will see that there is absolutely no system of control over the work of these bodies, none at all. Let's take, for example, SAP.

The Law of Ukraine on the Prosecutor's Office has a separate article that regulates the work of the SAP. According to the norms of the law, the SAP is a legal entity of public law. The SAP has completely separated, as a result of the last reform, which was voted on at the end of 2023, from the Office of the Prosecutor General. They have their own secret part, their own accounting, their own material and technical support. They independently select prosecutors in a competition. But, excuse me, we have the Constitution of Ukraine, which states that the sole head of the system of prosecutor's offices in Ukraine is the Prosecutor General. (...) As a result of this, we have, one way or another, such dubious decisions, concluded agreements, in an incomprehensible way, and closed, by the way, from society," Bronytskyi believes.