Victoria Siumar: NABU and SAPO were created for procedural independence in all anti-corruption cases
People’s Deputy from the European Solidarity faction Viktoria Siumar stated that NABU and SAPO were created for procedural independence in all anti-corruption cases.
This was reported by the press service of Eurosolidarity .
“The largest number of people in our faction voted “against” and this is a real reflection of the faction’s position. In 2014-2019, our team created an anti-corruption infrastructure, which includes NABU, SAPO, and the Anti-Corruption Court, which, by the way, may also be attacked in the coming days. And, of course, defending this position, the independence of these bodies was of principle. This is very important in general for justice in Ukraine to remain justice in general,” Siumar answered a question about the scandalous bill on the abolition of the independence of NABU and SAPO.
“Corruption today, in the opinion of Ukrainians, is the number two problem in the country – after the war with the Russian Federation. And it should be noted that the NABU and SAPO were successful in this fight because they allowed themselves to investigate high-level officials, such as, for example, the former Minister of Unity Oleksiy Chernyshov. Such as Mr. Mindich’s relatives, they are called close to the Office of the President. There are many figures involved, including those from the ruling faction “Servant of the People”, which actually made this vote today, let’s call things by their names. They did it together with their satellites, with the groups OPZZH, “Trust”, “For the Future”, “Vidrodzhennia”. That is, these are mostly fragments of OPZZH,” – said Siumar.
According to her, this extremely serious vote could have huge consequences for the country, as it was one of the conditions for Ukraine’s European integration, visa-free travel, and the provision of funds to support Ukraine during its fight against Russia.
“This is hitting the country very seriously, because the money provided by our partners requires independent control. And today they tried to kill this independent control, like all the cases against top officials. This is the essence of such a coordinated attack on the anti-corruption infrastructure, which also consisted of yesterday’s searches. This was also part of this attack,” the MP believes.
She added that today the EU provides financial assistance to us under the Ukraine Facility program.
“The terms of this assistance clearly state that Ukraine is obliged to reform the State Bureau of Investigation, which is openly engaged in political orders, and guarantee the independence of the NABU and SAPO. Instead, they are actually transforming the NABU and SAPO into a different form and not touching the State Bureau at all. That is, they are doing the exact opposite of what is already written in very specific documents, according to which we receive EU money,” Siumar noted.
The People’s Deputy emphasized that this is a very serious step backwards.
“On the eve of the opening of the first cluster of negotiations on Ukraine’s real membership, we may find ourselves in an extremely disadvantageous situation, when we slow down Ukraine’s path to Europe so much that we make it impossible. And this is something that cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” warns Victoria Siumar.
She also noted that once again the authorities have pushed through the changes they need through a non-core bill on missing persons.
“This is a special kind of cynicism, when in fact the law is needed, which, by the way, contains a good provision that our colleagues initiated, prohibiting extrajudicial searches. Because yesterday, NABU detectives came without court decisions. And this cannot be allowed, it opens the door to repression. In the correct law, certain provisions can be vetoed, and the law is then adopted with the support of the president’s position. That is, at the level of the procedure, when the president vetoes individual provisions. It is enough to simply remove all these provisions, and then the bill will be in the hall, will correspond to its name, and not turn everything upside down like this,” Siumar summarized.
On Tuesday, July 22, the Verkhovna Rada voted for a bill that significantly limits the powers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), effectively subordinating their activities to the Prosecutor General. Subsequently, the heads of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office appealed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy not to sign the bill , which, in their opinion, destroys the independence of these bodies.
As a reminder, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office have published an official statement regarding draft law No. 12414, which is being prepared for the second reading in the Verkhovna Rada. The anti-corruption bodies warn that the latest amendments to the document pose a serious threat to the independence of their activities.
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