Draft law No. 12414, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada today, undermines the independence of both the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office. It also undermines Ukraine's credibility on the international stage.
Originally unrelated to the powers of the NABU and the SAPO, the draft law was cynically rewritten on the eve of the second reading. New clauses appeared in the draft law on amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the peculiarities of pre-trial investigation of criminal violations related to the disappearance of persons under special circumstances during martial law.
What changes are we talking about? The Prosecutor General will become the head of SAPO prosecutors, gain access to all NABU cases and be able to transfer them to other bodies, resolve disputes over jurisdiction and independently issue suspicions to top officials. In other words, the NABU and the SAPO would lose their impartiality and their ability to conduct investigations in accordance with the law.
'This is, without exaggeration, a black day for Ukraine, when the independence of the anti-corruption bodies was destroyed by 263 MPs in the space of a few hours. Yesterday, we saw the SSU carrying out searches that could show NABU is not infallible, and this is true. Today, the authorities used these searches to destroy the independent anti-corruption investigation. There is no need to search people's iPhones and tear up their eyes — it is enough to demand the case files. They can then be passed on to another body. We have seen this story before — in the case of Oleg Tatarov, for example. Unfortunately, it is clear where everything is headed,' says NAKO senior researcher Tetiana Nikolaienko.
The development of anti-corruption institutions, which has been actively supported by civil society and international partners since 2015, is an important part of Ukraine's progress towards joining the EU and NATO. Eliminating the independence of the NABU and the SAPO undermines partners' trust and jeopardises further international assistance.
