NABU makes public recorded conversations from SAPO chief Kholodnytsky's office

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has made public fragments of declassified materials in the case of Nazar Kholodnytsky, chief of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), the NABU has reported on its Facebook page.

"In view of public response and in order to provide the public with reliable information on the NABU's participation in the investigation concerning the deputy prosecutor general and head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the national bureau finds it expedient to disclose fragments of declassified materials of secret investigative actions conducted in the office of the SAPO chief," reads the report.

The NABU said that these investigative actions had been carried out on the basis of a decision of the investigating judge as part of criminal proceedings registered by the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

As a result, according to the NABU, facts were established that there might be signs of criminal and disciplinary offences in the actions of the SAPO chief. In particular, the issue concerns possible incitement of witnesses to giving false testimony, as well as disclosure of information of the pre-trial investigation to persons who have nothing to do with the relevant criminal proceedings.

The question of bringing the SAPO chief to criminal liability falls within the competence of the Prosecutor General's Office as a body of pre-trial investigation in the mentioned criminal proceedings, the NABU said.

As for the disciplinary part of the case, on March 30, 2018, NABU Director Artem Sytnyk passed a respective complaint to the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors.

"We emphasize that the revealed facts of possible offences in the actions of the SAPO head in no way characterize the work of the body headed by him. Thus, cooperation between [NABU] detectives and SAPO prosecutors in the investigated criminal proceedings continues as normal," the report says.

Earlier, the heads of the Prosecutor General's Office and the NABU sent disciplinary complaints to the Qualification and Disciplinary Commission of Prosecutors about disciplinary offenses committed by Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky.

Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said that in the complaint, he asked the commission to dismiss Kholodnytsky as deputy prosecutor general and SAPO head.

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