It is known that currently the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, despite the war, is overwhelmed with thousands of criminal proceedings. Among them are not only standard, routine cases, but also extremely loud ones, which have long attracted the attention of society and caused a huge resonance. But even such cases remain without due attention, strangely "disappearing" in the labyrinths of the Prosecutor General's Office, and for years no one examines them or does it extremely sluggishly.
If you try to list those well-known cases that were nevertheless brought to a logical conclusion, the fingers of both hands will be enough. This raises a valid question: why does this happen?
First of all, the situation when a critical number of cases remains without movement speaks of problems of an organizational nature. Improper allocation of resources, lack of clear control and monitoring of the progress of the proceedings are obviously the main reason for delaying the processes.
Secondly, perhaps not all employees meet the level of professionalism that society expects from such a responsible body. Mistakes, delays, and an incorrect approach to investigations seem to have become the norm. But here it is important to understand that the blame should not be placed solely on ordinary performers. Perhaps it is a matter of the system of training, selection and certification of employees, which needs to be reviewed.
There is another side of the coin. Employees of the General Prosecutor's Office are also people, like all of us, and when faced with a huge number of cases, they make a choice: consider something quickly, and something "postpone for later". Of course, such an electoral approach seems unfair and even dangerous for justice in general.
One of such cases, which is clearly hampered by the Prosecutor General's Office, is the case of the inheritance of Odesa businessman Vadym Chorny. We will remind, as ElitExpert wrote, the law enforcement and judicial system has been preventing the investigation of the case related to the theft of corporate rights of Basari LLC and Kompromiss SE for two years, belonging to the public organization "Center for the Protection of the Disabled". First of all, we are talking about two Odesa business centers: BC "Kyivskyi" and underground BC "Gretskyi".
The criminal proceedings are being investigated by the Main Investigative Department of the National Police of Ukraine under the procedural guidance of prosecutors of the Prosecutor General's Office. The investigation has not yet identified the organizers of the crime and is not doing anything to find out their identities.
For the second year already, the entire law enforcement system has prevented the preliminary investigation in this case. It is the affected party who is under unreasonable pressure, and the property of the organization "Center for the Protection of the Disabled" has become a hostage to the situation. The Order of the Ministry of Justice, which canceled the illegal actions of the state registrars, is ignored and its action is blocked.
Moreover, the investigative judge of the Pechersk Court, T. Illeva, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, imposed an arrest on corporate rights, thereby prohibiting the execution of the Order of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
Currently, the Commercial Court of Kyiv is considering case No. 910/6601/23 based on the claim of the NGO "Center for the Protection of the Disabled" against the State Treasury Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General's Office, the State Prosecutor's Office in Odesa Oblast, the Odesa Oblast Prosecutor's Office for recognition of illegal inactivity and illegal decisions by law enforcement authorities in criminal proceedings, where the NGO "Center for the Protection of the Disabled" as a victim suffered damages in the total amount of UAH 139 million, caused as a result of the commission of criminal acts.
The investigation is led by the prosecutor of the Prosecutor General's Office Serhii Pylypenko, appointed by the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ihor Mustets. And thus, according to the lawyers who represent the interests of the NGO "CZI", it is Mustets who is covering the inaction of the investigation.
ARTIST: THE ENEMY OF EUROMAIDAN AND ACTIVISTS
So who is Ihor Mustetsa, who has been the Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine since 2020? What dark spots in his biography is he hiding?
As you know, from February 2011 to April 2014, Ihor Mustetsa was the prosecutor of the Shevchenkiv district of the city of Chernivtsi, and then he was promoted and became the deputy prosecutor of the Chernivtsi region. This appointment caused a wave of indignation among the local public, as Mustetsa was an opponent of the Maidan and personally opened criminal proceedings against Chernivtsi participants of the Revolution of Dignity!
Back in 2015, Vasyl Zabrodskyi was the head of "Maidan-3" NGO published his open letter to the Prosecutor General's Office, in which he noted that a person who is guilty of persecuting Maidan activists should be punished.
«Finally, take charge of bringing order in your ranks. Was the Law on Lustration passed for yet another collection of money from thugs? Did those who were a stronghold for Yanukovych and his gang become so necessary and irreplaceable for you? - says the appeal. — How could Ihor Mustetsa, the former prosecutor of the Shevchenkiv district, who personally opened criminal proceedings against the participants of the Chernivtsi Maidan under the numbers: 12013270040002956, 12014260040000154 and 12014260040000155 and personally supervised the proceedings, not just remain in office, but become a deputy prosecutor of the region? ? Suspicions and even verdicts were issued in these cases... How much and to whom did Mustets bring money so as not to be released according to the law "On Purification of Power"?", — wrote Vasyl Zabrodskyi.
Later, in September of the same year, the then head of the Chernivtsi region, Oleksandr Fyschuk, announced the names and surnames of those subject to lustration. As local media noted, under lustration were: deputy. the regional prosecutor Ihor Mustets, as well as the deputy head of the regional state administration V. Usyk, the head of the regional road service I. Gakh and the head of the Dniester-Prutsky BUVR Ya. Dzyuba.
The head of the Chernivtsi Regional State Administration sent a corresponding appeal regarding Mustetsa to the Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
However, as we can see, Ihor Mustetsa was not only not praised, but on the contrary, he even went for a promotion. In April 2020, the then Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova took him to her team. But even after her resignation, he remained in his place, continuing to work under the leadership of the new head, Andrii Kostin.
ANSWER TO THE INQUIRY
It should be noted that on September 22, the editors of "ElitExpert" sent several official requests to the Prosecutor General's Office and to I.Musteka himself with a request to express his position on these issues, and received a response within the time prescribed by law.
As stated in the response of the Prosecutor General's Office dated September 29.09.2023, XNUMX, "the prosecutor's office of the Chershvetsi region conducted an official investigation into the possible involvement of the managers and employees of the prosecutor's office of the Chernivtsi region in the criminal and administrative persecution of the participants of the peaceful protest actions during the Pdnosti Revolution. According to its results, on February 19.02.2015, XNUMX, a conclusion was drawn up, from which it can be seen, in particular, that in the actions of Mustetsa I.V. violations of the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding full, comprehensive and impartial pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings of the specified category have not been established.
3 taking into account the stated verification under similar circumstances,
stated in the publications of online publications, which you refer to in the request, was not carried out."
CURFEW IS NOT FOR EVERYONE
From the latest scandals connected with him, it is possible to note investigation "Ukrainian Pravda" journalist Mykhailo Tkach. He found out, that domestic officials wanted to ignore all prohibitions and even more so the law, everything was "seized" from them, everything was bought, because they are "caliphs for a day." The investigation says that during the curfew in the center of the capital, Deputy Prosecutor General Ihor Mustets likes to sit in glamorous restaurants, specially opened at night for the "elite", together with the guards. Of course, this is a trifle, but it shows the moral character of a high-ranking official.
Thus, can the law enforcement system be trusted now if the system seems to be preoccupied with itself? If the highest positions in the country can be occupied by those who opposed the Maidan and persecuted activists, this completely undermines trust in law and order. Maybe the "sleeping agents" of the old regime are really sitting in the walls of the Prosecutor General's Office, waiting for their moment? Then it is not just a stain on the reputation of the institution, but a systemic failure that can cause a real disaster.
The chaos that we observe in the "investigation" of cases by the Prosecutor General's Office shows that the country simply urgently needs a clear mechanism of control and responsibility, which will make it possible to make sure once and for all: either the system will work for the benefit of the citizens, or it needs a radical reboot, and all the unillustrated "former ” should be disgracefully expelled from there.
Oleksandr Dobronravov, Olena Ovchinnikova
