Sytnyk says NABU, SAPO cases sabotaged by courts
Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk has said that the courts sabotage cases submitted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO).
"Full sabotage on the part of the judiciary. This is really a huge problem: the cases aren't simply heard by the courts for months," Sytnyk said in an interview with Radio Liberty, published on Sunday.
What is more, in his words, "fairly simple cases are just not considered." The only way out of the situation, according to Sytnyk, is the creation of the Anti-Corruption Court, which will consider the relevant cases.
According to the NABU director, the law does not provide any deadline for hearing cases.
"There are sometimes objective reasons, sometimes subjective reasons. Sometimes the judges have from 500 to 600 minor cases to be heard - both civil and criminal ones. And there is, for example, the Onyschenko case, which [...] must be heard on a daily basis and then this process can be completed in two-three months. If you hear a case once every two months, and at the same time, lawyers use all the opportunities to delay the case, then, of course, we will have such a result," Sytnyk said.
He also said that the situation with the courts is being used by the interested parties to pressure the NABU and discredit its work. "This is the greatest pressure that we feel. Detectives who work for 20 hours a day and do not see their families to yield a result, and in the future, the case is hampered, then they lose a certain motivation," the Bureau director said.
Sytnyk is convinced that the judges are pressured in these matters. "The judge can not just fail to come to work to consider the request for Nasirov's arrest, for instance. It means that someone told him not to go to work, neither to comply with the rule of law, nor to consider these requests," he said.
"I am sure that when there will be two or three verdicts on these cases, which we are discussing, the situation will radically change," Sytnyk said.
