Activist Shabunin criticizes fictitious mobilization scheme, which he himself used to stop criminal case - Boyko

The head of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), Vitalii Shabunin, who previously used a fictitious mobilization scheme to stop the consideration of his own criminal case in court, now criticizes the use of the same scheme by corrupt officials.

This is written by a military serviceman, former journalist Volodymyr Boyko.

"Shabunin's scheme" consists in the fact that the suspect/accused agrees with the commander of a military unit and fictitiously mobilizes. And the lawyer of "mobilized" files a motion to suspend the proceedings to the investigator or the court - until either the war ends or the term for bringing him to criminal responsibility expires," Boyko writes.

According to him, this scheme was first used by a lawyer of the AntAC in the case of Shabunin's beating of blogger Filimonenko in June 2017.

So, in June 2023, lawyer of Shabunin filed a motion to suspend the consideration of the case, since the accused allegedly mobilized to the Terrotorial Defense battalion, is at the front, lives in the trenches and cannot come to Kyiv to participate in the court session. Such delaying time made it possible to later close the case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Boyko notes that initially the Dniprovskyi District Court granted this motion, but a year later it resumed consideration of the case. "The court found out that mobilized military serviceman Shabunin was not at the front ever, instead he lives in Kyiv, drinks in the capital's bars and evades military service," the journalist notes.

The next court hearing is scheduled for June 10, 2025.

"After the "Shabunin scheme" did not work for Shabunin himself, the evader Shabunin came to his senses and began to criticize the "Shabunin scheme" invented by the AntAC activist Shcherban at every opportunity. Because, it turns out, Shabunin himself can fictitiously mobilize in order to stop the criminal proceedings, but others can't," Boyko writes.

Recall, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) suspects the commander of the battalion of the Kyiv Territorial Defense, where Shabunin fictitiously served and received "combat" pay, of abuse of office. The commander was served with suspicion.

According to media reports, Shabunin is to be served with suspicion in the case of fictitious service in the army in the near future.

At the same time, the SBI is investigating a number of criminal cases against Shabunin: in particular, about evading mobilization, forging National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) documents, illegal use of humanitarian aid, and misappropriation of a Nissan Pathfinder jeep.

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