Political shackles of the NABU: why detectives investigate cases for decades, while the HACC acquits them

Recently, the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Semen Kryvonos, publicly promised to improve the procedural work of detectives so that the High Anti-Corruption Court would receive better quality materials than it currently has. He made this statement in connection with the acquittals that the HACC regularly issues in NABU and SAPO cases. Why do anti-corruption detectives and prosecutors drag out investigations for years or even decades, and end up with acquittals - Oleksandr Babikov, attorney at law, partner at DEFENSORES, told UNN in a commentary.

In his opinion, delays in the investigation and indictments can be used by NABU detectives as political leverage. After all, all of the bureau's investigators are top officials, politicians, and generally not the least people in the country. So it is convenient when they are suspended for years and have their rights restricted.

Babikov recalled that it was the anti-corruption activists who strongly opposed the statutory time limits (12-18 months) for investigating criminal proceedings, which limited their activities.

In the vast majority of cases, detectives do not have time to complete the investigation within this timeframe, and the one and a half years required by law can take decades.

This is the case, for example, in the case against the former head of Energomerezha, Dmitry Kryuchkov, which detectives have been investigating for almost 10 years. They have not yet been able to prove his guilt, but all this time Kryuchkov has been forced to live with significant restrictions that have negatively affected his lifestyle.

Analyzing their work, I can say my opinion that they are actively working, including on current high-ranking officials, accumulating materials. They are just in no hurry to press charges. And this gives them room for maneuver to achieve some other goal in a non-procedural way. This is just a cultural thing

At the same time, the anti-corruption system is working at its limit - the workload of HACC judges in 2023 increased by 63% compared to 2022.

Currently, there are more cases pending before anti-corruption judges than there have been sentences passed since the HACC's inception. There have been 205 verdicts, and 289 cases are under consideration.

It should be added that out of 205 verdicts, almost 10% (22) were acquittals. Moreover, acquittals also apply to former high-ranking officials, such as former Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan. The entire evidence base of the NABU and the SAPO was found to be worthless. According to Omelyan himself, the detectives did not hesitate to manipulate forensic examinations, trying to order “convenient” ones for themselves, but they did not help either.

In general, forensic examinations are a sore point for the NABU and the SAPO. For years, they have been trying to “create” their own expert institution, but the legal community is sounding the alarm, because “their” experts in the investigation have nothing to do with an independent investigation.

Manipulations with examinations often play against the NABU detectives themselves. For example, as was the case with the examinations in the Rotterdam+ cases.

In addition, the NABU tried to leak the expertise in the case against former Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi, which they themselves ordered and which, obviously, was supposed to testify to Solskyi's innocence. It is also worth adding that this case is more than five years old, and the reasonable timeframe for investigation has been exhausted, but detectives decided to announce suspicions this year. The nearest plans include interrogation of almost 1,500 ATO soldiers.