NABU opens case against Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office staff
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has initiated criminal proceedings against officials of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), who kidnapped and held hostage NABU employees, NABU head Artem Sytnyk said.
"The NABU has opened criminal proceedings under a number of articles, including on the grounds of kidnapping of NABU employees [...], abuse of authority and office by officials of the Prosecutor General's Office, and an array of others, including torture," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.
The NABU is investigating a number of criminal proceedings, in which the officials of the department of investigation of high-priority cases in the economy sector of the Ukrainian PGO were involved, he said.
"During this investigation the investigative judge granted a permission to take certain private investigative measures, including against the officials of the aforementioned department," he said.
In addition, Sytnyk said that the officials of the department of investigation of high-priority cases in the economy sector detained NABU employees on duty for 11 hours without providing any procedural documents, abusing office and using the recourses of the PGO and the National Police, in Kyiv on August 12.
"Two employees, taking private investigative measures, were illegally detained, transported to the PGO department and held there. Having the opportunity to release them I made a request to the Prosecutor General [Yuriy Lutsenko] to give an order to his subordinates to ceases the illegal activities and release the NABU officials held illegally. I am grateful for the constructive stand of the Prosecutor General, who made the decision and gave the relevant order," he said.
At the same time, Sytnyk said, despite the order of the Prosecutor General, the officials of the PGO department of investigation of high-priority cases in the economy sector detained the NABU employees illegally for 11 hours.
"The personal belongings, devices and documents were illegally seized from the NABU employees. There is also evidence that the illegal measures of physical and psychological pressure were used against them," he added.
At that, Sytnyk said he is confident that such event was possible only because Lutsenko "was not in Ukraine at the time and in fact did not know that the orders [on the NABU employees' release] he gave in the afternoon were not fulfilled."
