The conflict between anti-corruption activists is growing: Uglava filed a complaint against NABU director with NACP and became a whistleblower

First Deputy Director of the NABU Gizo Uglava filed a complaint with the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption about a possible violation of anti-corruption legislation by the head of the bureau, Semen Kryvonos, and became a whistleblower. He announced this on his Facebook page, UNN reports.

"I filed a statement that the NABU Director had a real conflict of interest in relation to me with the Disciplinary Commission, the PEC, and the Director himself. But it was ignored by all of the above. At the same time, a similar application was submitted to the specialized body, the NACP," Uglava said.

According to him, the NACP has started monitoring and controlling possible violations of anti-corruption legislation by the NABU director.

He emphasized that Kryvonos was pressuring him to resign, making decisions under external influence rather than on the basis of the law, and taking actions that undermined the rule of law to achieve private interests.

"In connection with the above, in accordance with the law, I have been granted whistleblower status. It is important to emphasize that the NABU Director has already committed illegal actions in the context of an existing conflict of interest as part of the official investigation. The NACP still needs to verify these circumstances to ensure confidence in Ukraine's anti-corruption system," Uglava said.

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This is not the first statement by NABU First Deputy Director Gizo Uglava about external influence on anti-corruption officials and biased investigations. Earlier, Uglava statedthat the bureau was at risk of losing its independence, and detectives were under political pressure, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of the fight against corruption. In particular, under pressure from activists and the head of the Verkhovna Rada Anti-Corruption Committee, Anastasia Radina.

He also complained about the bias and partisanship of NABU detectives, and stated that the conclusions in the case against him regarding the leaks of information from the bureau were made long ago "without trial.

Recall

Allegations of bias and political bias in the NABU have been made many times before, but the anti-corruption activists have not paid attention to them.

A good example is the case of anti-corruption activists against former Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan. He has repeatedly claimed that detectives were one-sided in their treatment of the case against him due to political bias. Both cases against him collapsed in the courts, but NABU did not officially apologize to the former minister for illegal criminal prosecution and damage to his business reputation.

There are also concerns about violations of the presumption of innocence by the NABU, as in the cases against Mykola Solskyi and MP  Serhii Kuzminykh.

The Kharkiv Human Rights Group also criticized NABU for statements that violate the presumption of innocence. They believe that the real reason for Solsky's prosecution is the reform of the land market in Ukraine.