Legal nonsense in the case of ex-Minister Solskyi: NABU detectives in court refer to a copy of a handwritten “document”

Oleksandr Kolotilin, former acting head of the State Geocadastre, called NABU's arguments that the land plots belong to the state-owned enterprise  Iskra on the basis of a State Act issued to the Stalin Artel in 1953 legal nonsense. He noted that in independent Ukraine there was no succession of Soviet artels and collective farms, and the copy of the act itself is questionable, as the name "Stalin's artel" was crossed out and "Iskra" was written instead. He said this in an interview with UNN. 

"The NABU claims that the Stalin Artel received a State Act for the lifetime use of land in 1953. And that the Stalin artel is the state-owned enterprise Iskra. In my opinion, this is legal nonsense, because artels, collective and state farms, and so on, all existed in the Soviet Union, and in independent Ukraine, there was no such form of management. And there was no succession in such cases," Kolotilin said.

Moreover, the copy of the act (there is no original), which NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors rely on, has no legal force. The name "Stalin's Artel" is crossed out on the document, and "Iskra" is written on top, which casts doubt on its authenticity and legal force, Kolotylin continued.

"It is quite obvious that  the copy of the State Act issued to the Stalin artel does not give any rights to use the land to the newly created state-owned enterprise Iskra in independent Ukraine. "Iskra is not the legal successor of the Soviet Stalin artel, as has been repeatedly investigated in courts and during inspections. When studying the available materials, even additional investigation materials, I can say with certainty that the state-owned enterprises Iskra and Nadiia have nothing to do with the Stalin artel, even theoretically, as successors," the former head of the StateGeoCadastre emphasized.

Kolotilin also emphasized that Iskra and Nadiia have never issued title documents for land since Ukraine gained independence, which, in his opinion, indicates an improper  approach to land use without official  documents.

"They simply never acquired these land plots and never formalized them. This is a bit of a Soviet approach, so to speak. There used to be an artel here, there used to be a state farm here. It's all ours, it's all state-owned, it's all common. We are cultivating it," he added.

More details can be found in the interview on the website of UNN.

Context

This refers to a criminal proceeding in which NABU detectives and SAPO prosecutors accuse former Minister Mykola Solskyi and former head of the State Geocadastre Oleksandr Kolotylin of organizing the seizure of land of the National Agrarian Academy in Sumy region to transfer it to the ATO military. According to the detectives' version , these lands were allegedly used by state-owned enterprises of the National Agricultural Academy (Iskra and Nadiya), and therefore could not be transferred to the ATO military. In their arguments, the detectives and prosecutors refer to a copy of the State Act issued to the Stalin Artel, where "Stalin Artel" is crossed out and "Iskra" is added with a ballpoint pen.

Despite the fact that the proceedings themselves raise more questions than answers - some call it political persecution - the reasonable timeframe for the investigation has long been exhausted, as it concerns the events of 2017, when Solsky was a lawyer.

The Supreme Court and expert examinations ruledthat 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.

The ATO soldiers themselves are outraged by such actions of the NABU and are ready to prove the legitimacy of their actions.