Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has released the first part of a video explaining his decision to sign a notice of suspicion against Semen Kryvonos, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), and a person close to the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP).
The video, released on September 14, said that in June 2009 the Holosiivskyi District Court in Kyiv considered charges that Kryvonos had bribed voters. According to investigators, Kryvonos bribed students at the Kyiv Linguistic University and at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2008 to secure votes for a specific party.
The video also noted that the episode was raised during Kryvonos's interview for the NABU director post. Kryvonos called the case nonsense at the time and said he knew nothing about any such investigation.
Alleged Plan to Avoid Prosecution
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Kryvonos then devised a plan to avoid criminal liability. The video includes an interview with a woman who said Kryvonos had fictitiously adopted her child.
The video states that Kryvonos's plan was to create an artificial basis that would entitle him to amnesty, since having a minor child was one of the legal grounds for amnesty at the time.
Investigators say Kryvonos carried out the plan and then asked the court to apply amnesty. The court granted the request, releasing Kryvonos from criminal liability.
Kryvonos has now been notified of suspicion under Part 2 and Part 3 of Article 358 of Ukraine's Criminal Code, covering the drawing up or issuing of knowingly falsified official documents by professionals, and the repeated or coordinated commission of such acts. NABU and SAP work together in Ukraine to investigate and prosecute high-level corruption cases.
Kravchenko's Departure and Political Fallout
Kravchenko said on the morning of September 14 that he had signed the notice of suspicion against the NABU chief and a person close to the head of SAP. It later emerged that he had left Ukraine, which he confirmed himself, saying he was on a foreign business trip.
President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized the move, saying Kravchenko now had only one path: dismissal from his post.
Davyd Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, said a vote on Kravchenko's dismissal would take place in the Verkhovna Rada on September 15. Presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn later said Zelensky's submission for Kravchenko's dismissal had already been sent to parliament.
