Investigation into the cases against representatives of the former leadership gave no results

Photo: Ukrainian photo

Almost a year after the events of the Euromaidan not a single criminal case against its participants was filed with the courts and those who ordered the crimes have not been incriminated to this day. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (PGO), which is conducting the investigations, says the process has been dragged out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Law enforcers in response point to the political struggle for the post of the head of the MIA between the winners of the parliamentary elections.

Negative results

On Friday the Consultative Council of the PGO attended by Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema reviewed the situation with the investigations into violations of the law and the rights and freedoms of citizens during Euromaidan. As Chairman of the Council Volodymyr Boyko told Capital, participants of the meeting said not a single criminal investigation against participants of the Euromaidan for violation of the law was submitted to the courts according to procedure.

Assistant Prosecutor General Oleksiy Bahanets, who up until September headed the Central Investigation Administration, explained to Capital that such a situation is due to the fact that the current Criminal Proceedings Code of Ukraine deprived investigative bodies of the right to immediately receive materials. Moreover, the process of informing of suspicion allowed the majority of individuals under investigation to flee the country. “I will not criticize the inability to organize investigations. We only managed to select qualified investigators by May of this year. I will also point out to the opposition of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on criminal investigations for which employees of the law enforcement bodies are responsible,” he stressed.

Boyko is confident that over this period of time some of the investigation materials were lost. “The ability to investigate such crimes was lost at the end of February and early March, when Berkut soldiers were ushered out of Kyiv together with their weapons. In addition, the investigations were sabotaged by Head of the MIA Arsen Avakov. Even if he is fired from his post, these documents and eyewitnesses will not be found,” Boyko assures.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs denies the sabotage of investigation. MIA Deputy Minister Mykola Velychkovych told Capital that the Prosecutor General’s Office conducts all cases against employees of law enforcement bodies. His body fulfills all requirements and instructions and is itself interested in speeding up the process of investigation. Meanwhile, advisor to the minister Anton Herashchenko told Capital that he connects such statements with the campaign against Avakov during the period of coalition talks on formation of the new composite of the government. “Horses aren’t changed in midstream. The fact that four ministers were changed over seven months is the result of such policy. If statements are made by the Consultative Council of the PGO, then just think about who needs it,” he underscored.

As Capital informed earlier, talks on the formation of a parliamentary coalition were suspended in order to resolve staffing issues regarding the future Cabinet of Ministers. The Petro Poroshenko Bloc insists on its candidates of ministers of foreign affairs and justice. In its turn, the People’s Front wants its members to hold these posts.

Outside forces

Besides crimes against participants of the Euromaidan, investigative bodies have not closed a single resonating criminal case on economic crimes and the withdrawal of money from the country, Boyko told Capital. Bahanets says the chances of the PGO of swaying the situation in its favor and conducting investigation that would bring a positive result in the foreseeable future are slim to none. “For example, on the embezzlement of budget funds on tenders from UkrGazVydobuvannya, an affiliate of Naftogaz, we appealed for a financial audit in May. But due to the lack of the required number of auditors, our audit was postponed until November,” he complained.

Noteworthy, over the past weekend the former deputy head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Portnov, for whom the PGO put out a search warrant, was issued a Schengen Visa for entry into the EU. Besides that, the politician informed that he won a number of lawsuits in Ukrainian courts against representatives of the government that accused him of committing certain crimes.