Wearing executioner’s garments, anti-corruption activists, with parliamentary factions symbolic, installed a gallows with ‘bill №6220’ written on it under the building of the Verkhovna Rada – a symbol of destruction of Ukraine’s National Anti-corruption Bureau by the people’s deputies.
The coalition’s №6220 draft bill foresees that NABU detectives not to investigate anti-corruption crimes that fall under their jurisdiction committed by high officials provided such cases on the same subjects had earlier been closed by other law enforcement officials. Supposing General Prosecutor’s Office or National Police ‘sabotage’ proceedings threatening corrupted top-officials or their surroundings, NABU detectives shall be forced to terminate investigations of their cases.
‘Bill suggests prohibiting law enforcement officials, including NABU, from investigating criminal inquiries if investigations due to the same cause were commenced and ceased by different law enforcement bodies,’ explains Andriy Sliusar, Transparency International Ukraine elite anti-corruption program manager. ‘Thus, supposing General Prosecutor’s Office closed a case on one of the deputies, e.g. for unjust enrichment, NABU shall not be able to open its investigation, even with evidence being in place.’
Activists are certain this bill will bind together the biggest parliamentary factions as the latter ones want to ‘kill’ a new independent anti-corruption body. The people’s deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Vadym Denysenko, the author of an infamous e-declaration killer bill vetoed by the President, initiated the bill.
‘In practice, this is how it will look like: Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office opens a case on Martynenko, on a different matter and closes it for some reason. NABU will then be forced to stop its inquiry as well,’ says Vitaliy Shabunin, Anti-corruption Action Center board chairman. ‘It will allow to decide which NABU cases should be and should not to be closed by other law enforcement agencies,’ he adds.
Anti-corruption activists warn that the bill that was supposedly drafted to protect businesses from frequents visits from law enforcement officials should not assosiated with it.
