Return power over the judiciary and the distribution of funds. The former head of the judicial administration named the reasons for opening a case in NABU against him and Kniaziev
Kyiv • UNN
Former head of the State Judicial Administration Oleksiy Salnikov, convicted of abuse of influence, called the NABU criminal proceedings against him a custom-made case. He believes that the reason is the attempts of influential people to regain control over the judicial system and the distribution of grant funding.
Former head of the State Judicial Administration (SJA) Oleksiy Salnikov, convicted of abuse of influence, called the criminal proceedings investigated against him by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) a custom-made case. Among the reasons for opening the case were attempts by influential people to regain control over the judicial system and take control of the distribution of grant funding, writes UNN.
I considered and still consider the case against me to be custom-made and fabricated. I regret that NABU was used to achieve purely private interests.
According to him, there are several reasons for opening criminal proceedings against him.
In my opinion, the first main reason is the desire of some influential people in the judicial system to regain the power they lost after Vsevolod Knyazev was elected head of the Supreme Court. To do this, it was also necessary to remove me from the post of head of the SJA. The close friendly ties of these people with the now former leadership of NABU were used.
According to him, the former leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau organized a number of provocateurs, including Oleksiy Honchar and Kyrylo Horburov, with the aim of fabricating a criminal case against Knyazev and Salnikov. According to the investigation materials, Honchar and Horburov were NABU agents who provoked Salnikov and Knyazev to commit corrupt crimes.
The second probable reason was the desire of the so-called "grant circles" to strengthen their influence on the judicial system in general and to take control of the distribution of funds in the SJA. To do this, it was necessary to take control of the SJA and the High Council of Justice, which were directly involved in these issues. But given the weak nominal head of the HCJ, Hryhoriy Usyk, to establish control over the judicial system, including the distribution of funds, it was necessary to remove the people who exercised real leadership of the judicial system - the head of the Supreme Court Knyazev and the head of the SJA.
In his opinion, under such circumstances, the interests of both influence groups coincided. "The first group (albeit temporarily) regained power; and grant organizations gained control over the HCJ and the distribution of funds in the judicial system. HCJ members were 'dragged' to NABU interrogations, and now, as far as I understand, the actual leadership of the HCJ is exercised by one of the members - a former representative of grant circles," Salnikov noted.
Recall
In August 2025, the High Anti-Corruption Court sentenced the former head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, Oleksiy Salnikov, to 3 years in prison for abuse of influence.
On February 14, 2024, the SAP prosecutor, based on the materials of the NABU pre-trial investigation, sent an indictment to the court against the former head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, who was exposed for inciting the provision of undue benefits to Supreme Court judges for making a decision in favor of a commercial enterprise and for seizing other people's property by deception.
According to the investigation, in March 2023, the head of the SJA of Ukraine received 7.5 thousand US dollars from a person. He was supposed to keep part of these funds, and 5 thousand US dollars were allegedly to be transferred to judges for making a decision in the interests of a commercial enterprise.