Kyrylo Shevchenko's case resembles political persecution – Rostyslav Kravets
Investigators are trying to replace the real investigation and evidence in the case of former NBU Head Shevchenko with confessions obtained through intimidation of the defendants.
This opinion was expressed by Rostyslav Kravets, lawyer and senior partner at Kravets & Partners, analyzing the conclusions of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group regarding the Ukrgasbank case and the participation of former National Bank Head Kyrylo Shevchenko in it.
According to him, in the case of Kyrylo Shevchenko, the NABU does not have enough evidence, and bases the charges on confessions obtained under duress.
"The NABU, in the best traditions of the Kuchma-era police, instead of investigating criminal offenses, is engaged in creating them to justify its existence. Demonstrating some videos, charts, diagrams, tables, fantasies of prosecutors and detectives and supporting them instead of real investigation with sincere confessions obtained as a result of intimidation, not investigation. I was not the only one who noticed this. Recently, the Kharkiv Human Rights Group came to similar conclusions," the lawyer writes.
Rostyslav Kravets believes that with the emergence of such an institution as a plea bargain in Ukraine, there is virtually no need to investigate and prove a person's guilt in committing a crime and prove it in court. As a result, detectives and prosecutors try to achieve such a deal by intimidating suspects and forcing them to confess, and the court quickly approves the necessary decision.
"To this end, in order to approve fictitious agreements that suspects make under obvious coercion and intimidation, prosecutors deliberately alter the qualification of the crime and agree with judges in advance, which most citizens who observe this do not even doubt," the lawyer believes.
In his opinion, such agreements with the investigation should not be taken into account in the main case, but HACC judges make decisions based on these agreements.
He emphasizes that the case of Kyrylo Shevchenko has been under investigation for almost 5 years, and the fact that it has not been closed yet indicates that the NABU and the SAPO are not fulfilling their functions, accepting political orders and manually managing the investigation on the command of those who receive their ‘dividends’ from it.
"This state of affairs demonstrates to the whole society, not only in Ukraine, that these bodies are engaged in contractual cases, and to achieve the ‘result’ they use the dirtiest methods that have nothing to do with the law and human rights. The case itself looks more like a political persecution, given the circumstances and timing of its investigation, than a real investigation of an alleged crime," Rostyslav Kravets summarizes.