Prosecutors open criminal case against NABU for illegal wiretapping

"It was established that in 2016 NABU agents illegally, without the necessary approvals from an investigative judge, conducted operations, including surveillance of individuals' movement throughout the country and wiretapping of conversations on 114 telephones," she wrote.

According to investigators, the measures were directed against officials of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the National Police, the Security Service, the State Guard Department, the State Affairs Department, deputy ministers of the Cabinet of Ministers, State Fiscal Service agencies, judges of higher courts, heads of district courts in Kyiv, chiefs of higher educational institutions, and other officials.

The investigators have currently questioned as witnesses a number of officials of these bodies.

The Prosecutor General's Office is conducting a pre-trial investigation on the grounds of criminal offenses envisaged by Articles 365 and 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

On September 20, NABU reported on its Facebook page that the information announced by Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko regarding the unauthorized wiretapping by NABU detectives of more than 150 people, including presidential security guards, was untrue.

Lutsenko said in Dnipro on Tuesday, September 20, that NABU had illegally tapped the phones of over 140 officials.

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