There are five suspects in criminal proceeding into inflicting damage to State Enterprise Eastern (Skhidny) Mining and Processing Combine (VostGOK), which was allegedly organized by former lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, Prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) Roman Symkiv has said.

"Now, there are already five suspects in the case, who have been notified about the suspicion in line with the Criminal Procedure Code, and where Mr. Martynenko is given the role of an organizer, that is the person who organized and supervised the actions of others in committing this criminal offense," Symkiv told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Answering journalists' questions, the prosecutor said the indictment in Martynenko's case is not ready to be sent to the court yet, since the criminal proceedings are especially complex and it is necessary to complete a large number of investigative actions. "In addition, we are waiting for how the defense team will build its tactics, what evidence they will provide to refute the facts put forward in the indictment," Symkiv said.

For his part, Martynenko said before the court sitting to review a preventive measure against him that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau's leadership should be replaced.

"They (the NABU leadership) have discredited the very idea of fighting corruption. Moreover, they believe that I threaten national security. Everything they take up, has to halt, gets damaged, does not undergo privatization. And they do not care about this. They are absolutely irresponsible people who are only interested in their own political careers. But Ukrainian citizens won't vote for them, I am sure of it. Therefore, in my opinion, it is necessary to change the NABU leadership," he told journalists on Wednesday.

According to N. Martynenko, the anti-corruption agencies should be headed by professionals.

Kyiv Court of Appeals has postponed the consideration of the appeal against the preventive measure for Martynenko for May 12, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.

As reported, on May 3, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv was to consider an appeal of the prosecution against a ruling by Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv not to put Martynenko and first deputy chairman of Naftogaz Ukrainy, Serhiy Pereloma, into custody as a pre-trial restriction.