A member of the SAP selection commission reported interference in its work and an attempt to halt the selection process
Oleksiy Shevchuk, a member of the selection commission responsible for selecting staff of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), an attorney, PhD in Law, public and civic figure, and member of the International Criminal Bar Association (ICBA), has alleged interference in the commission’s work, pressure on its chair, and attempts by the leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to halt the selection process.
Mr. Shevchuk made the allegations during a press conference at the UNIAN press center.
“Today, together with my lawyers and representatives in the European Union, I am compelled to make a public statement regarding a shameful incident that occurred several days ago and involved attempts to exert pressure on me and on the commission responsible for selecting the Deputy Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. This was done in a letter signed by NABU Director Semen Kryvonos. Semen Kryvonos grossly interfered with the independence of the commission responsible for selecting the Head and Deputy Head of SAPO,” mr. Shevchuk said.
According to Shevchuk, Kryvonos sent a letter to the chair of the commission demanding that Shevchuk be removed from its membership.
Mr. Shevchuk described the NABU director’s actions as direct interference that, in his view, is not provided for by any applicable regulation.
“Kryvonos personally prepared a letter containing a number of false media claims about me as a public figure, an attorney and an independent member of the commission responsible for selecting the Deputy Head of SAPO. He failed to verify the facts, some of which had already been found by the Supreme Court to be inaccurate, and sent the letter to the chair of the commission selecting the Deputy Head of SAPO. He signed the letter not as a private citizen, but as the head of a state institution responsible for anti-corruption policy in the country, forgetting that he is the director of an independent body and not an independent party to these legal relations,” Shevchuk said.
He further alleged that Kryvonos’s actions could potentially contain elements of criminal offenses, contradict the rules of professional legal ethics, threaten the independence of the commission tasked with ensuring an independent SAPO, and create a perception of impunity for the NABU leadership.
“I am compelled to inform the President of the European Commission and accredited ambassadors about these circumstances. I am also appealing to the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine and the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation, who should urgently determine why Kryvonos is attempting to disrupt the work of the independent international commission and the selection process for the Deputy Head of SAPO. I also ask the Foreign Intelligence Service to determine whether he could be an agent of a foreign intelligence service and whether there is any Russian involvement. Separately, I call on the parliamentary committee responsible for law enforcement to urgently establish a temporary investigative commission to examine the NABU director’s reasons for taking these actions and ensure a transparent investigation into these circumstances,” Shevchuk said.
At the same time, Andriy Levkovets, an expert in European integration, referred to the Law of Ukraine on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which defines the powers and responsibilities of the NABU director.
According to Levkovets, none of the relevant provisions authorizes the NABU director to address selection commissions, personnel commissions or other bodies regarding the appointment of heads or officials.
“At most, he may raise issues concerning the commission, investigation and prevention of corruption-related criminal offenses. In this case, we are not dealing with a corruption offense; we are dealing with a selection process. Accordingly, such actions go beyond the powers granted to the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” Levkovets explained.
Yaroslav Kuts, an attorney representing a member of the SAPO prosecutor selection commission and Shevchuk’s lawyer, said that the submission by the NABU director to the commission’s chair contained only unsubstantiated allegations.
“Let us take the first claim in Kryvonos’s letter: that Shevchuk, while acting as an attorney, behaved improperly toward NABU detectives, used inappropriate language and should be stripped of his right to practice law. The Supreme Court has put a final end to this matter. There are no grounds for holding him disciplinarily liable, while the plaintiffs, who were NABU employees themselves, failed to substantiate their claim that Shevchuk had allegedly acted improperly,” Kuts said.
Oleksandr Chernykh, an attorney representing a member of the SAPO prosecutor selection commission and Shevchuk’s lawyer, suggested that the letter could have been an intentional provocation aimed both at derailing the selection process and undermining NABU’s authority, which, in his view, had strengthened following a large number of high-profile corruption scandals.
For his part, Andriy Leshchenko, an attorney representing a member of the SAPO prosecutor selection commission and Shevchuk’s lawyer, emphasized that the Shevchuk case was not merely an isolated dispute, but what he described as an attack on the rights of attorneys across Ukraine, both those working in Ukraine and abroad.
“And we cannot fail to respond. Essentially, when an attorney represents and defends a client, they are simply performing their professional duties. They must remain independent and impartial. Likewise, when an attorney represents the legal profession, including in various competitions and selection procedures, they are upholding the principles of independence and impartiality,” Leshchenko concluded.
