Actions against NABU, SAPO indicate authorities' desire to destroy independence of anti-corruption agencies

The actions of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) and the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) against detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the unscheduled inspection of compliance with state secrets by the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) signal the authorities' desire to destroy the independence of anti-corruption agencies and use force to obtain information and influence investigations into top officials, Transparency International Ukraine said in a statement.

"Transparency International Ukraine publicly declares the inadmissibility of pressure on anti-corruption bodies... Official information in the public space indicates that the main goal of these actions was a general desire to influence the activities of the NABU and the SAPO," the Transparency International said on its Telegram channel on Monday.

The statement notes that the essence of the offenses charged against the NABU detectives indicates "a different goal than the declared one," and the scale and planned nature of the operation do not allow us to speak about the urgency of the searches. In particular, the suspicions from the State Bureau of Investigations in cases of road accidents in 2021 and 2023 "do not resemble the usual procedure of pretrial investigation, but are a targeted action to rehabilitate any cases that can be found on NABU employees."

It is also indicated that conducting an unscheduled check of compliance with state secrets of the SAPO without prior notification to the management is a violation and creates a risk of compromising anti-corruption investigations in general. "The SBU's possible access to the materials of all covert investigative actions and special operations could lead to the disruption of existing cases, including those involving top officials," Transparency International said.

The organization said the campaign by the SBU, the PGO, and the SBI "violates a number of norms of Ukrainian law and signals a desire to compromise the work of anti-corruption institutions."

"Transparency International Ukraine emphasizes that such actions are especially harmful to our country during a war, as they destroy the stability of institutions that ensure the integrity and development of the state. We call on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to publicly guarantee the independence of anti-corruption bodies and demand that the State Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General's Office stop the illegal pressure," the statement reads.

The actions of the SBU, the PGO, and the SBI were also sharply criticized by the public organization "Anti-Corruption Action Center" and the anti-corruption center "Mezha" (Border).

Head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center Vitaliy Shabunin, who was remanded in custody by Pechersky District Court of Kyiv until August 20 in the form of a personal bond on July 15, expressed his belief that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "is building a corrupt autocracy in which individuals like Chernyshov and Mindich can steal and not be punished for it, and Zelenskyy himself can be re-elected without any problems." "To do this, we need to purge critics and whistleblowers (for example, me and the Anti-Corruption Action Center), then destroy the NABU/SAPO and curtail free media," he said on Telegram on Monday.

At the same time, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center suggested that suspicions about "moles" in the NABU may be not unfounded. "Could there have been hostile rats inside NABU? It's possible (we'll look at the evidence in court), but something suggests that there won't be open sessions. Let me remind you that there were enough traitors in the SBU itself... Today's attack by Bankova on SAPO/NABU is not about fighting external rats. It's about protecting internal rats," Shabunin said.

Head of the Mezha center Martyna Bohuslavets also believes that the reason for the investigative actions against NABU detectives and the SAPO inspection are the cases against representatives and entourage of the current government, which these anti-corruption agencies are investigating.

"Today, the President's Office, through the SBU, received access to 658 criminal cases that are being investigated by the NABU…. But what's even worse is that Bankova received access not only to already opened criminal cases. But also to those materials where suspicions were only being prepared. So there they are. They will no longer be there. Because now they will warn all their own people," Bohuslavets said on Facebook.

According to her, the President's Office received access to all the secret special operations that were planned by the NABU and the SAPO, and "this is a step to stop all future cases of top-level corruption of officials and block the work of the NABU and the SAPO."

"This is an attempt to take control of the NABU and the SAPO by the President's Office. We are already communicating with international partners about this. They are asking us about all this and they are in wild shock from such impudence and what happened today," Bohuslavets said.

As reported, the NABU confirmed in the morning that 15 of its employees are being searched. According to them, the reasons for these actions in the vast majority of cases are the involvement of individuals in road accidents. Later, three NABU employees were reported to be suspected of committing road accidents that resulted in injuries to the victims.