Prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Omelchenko was suddenly dismissed from his position. He was involved in the procedural management of the bribery case against the former head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, Vsevolod Knyazev.
Omelchenko told about this in a comment to RBC-Ukraine.
According to the prosecutor, on June 29 he was in the office of the head of the SAP Oleksandr Klymenko and reported on the course of the case in several criminal proceedings. He was not informed about staff changes.
"This was not discussed in the SAP at all. It is inappropriate to reduce the position at a time when only three of the six chiefs are performing their duties. Recently, one of the three mobilized chiefs began to exercise his official powers," the prosecutor said.
In addition, the head of the department is the head of the group of prosecutors, represents the prosecution in court and has all the information in a particular criminal case. However, on July 3, Omelchenko was informed about the reduction of his position.
"On Monday, July 3, at 9:20 a.m., I was informed of the Prosecutor General's order to reduce the position of the head of the first department. At the same time, instead of her, a position similar in essence to the head of the 1st department - the deputy head of the department - will be created instead," Omelchenko said.
SAP position
In a comment to RBC-Ukraine, SAP noted that the reduction of the position held by Omelchenko had been prepared for a long time and was not related to the affairs he managed. In addition, the SAP noted that Omelchenko continues to remain a prosecutor and has the right to remain in the position of prosecutor of the SAP. At the same time, according to the order of the OGP dated July 10, Omelchenko's name is not in the list of prosecutors who can conduct procedural management of cases in courts.
The prosecutor himself connects his reduction with the Knyazev case, which he is dealing with. According to him, the decision to eliminate his position came after he agreed to the NABU detective's request to send Knyazev's phone to Poland to remove the necessary information from it.
"There have been no complaints in 23 years of my work, including 7.5 years of work in the SAP. In addition, evaluations of prosecutors are conducted at the end of the year. I and my prosecutors received the highest rating - positive. I think that the reduction of my position happened because of the investigation into Knyazev," Omelchenko added.
Application to the Council of Prosecutors
At the disposal of the mass media is Omelchenko's statement, which he wrote to the Council of Prosecutors with a request to give an assessment of the situation. It says that on June 20, he agreed to the NABU detective's request for international legal assistance to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland, which would allow him to make a copy of the information placed in Knyazev's phone. On June 21, Omelchenko was informed that Klymenko was interested in where the phone was. The prosecutor visited Klymenko and informed him that, according to the latest information, the phone is not in NABU and its exact location is still unknown to him.
"After that, he began to ask me in a raised tone with shouts whether the information that I signed a request for international legal assistance in this criminal proceeding regarding Knyazev's phone was true and what exactly the questions were in the request," the statement emphasizes.
According to Omelchenko, Klymenko shouted and scolded that the prosecutor had no right to involve specialists from Poland.
"According to the content of the statements and claims made to me by the Deputy Prosecutor General - the head of the SAP Klymenko, I got the impression that he was very angry at the very possibility of obtaining access to the information contained in the suspect Knyazev's phone," Omelchenko added in his statement.
It is worth noting that Omelchenko was engaged in high-profile criminal proceedings. In addition to Knyazev, the prosecutor's department supervised the investigation of the case of the former head of PrivatBank Oleksandr Dubilet (embezzlement of 8 billion hryvnias), the case of former vice-prime minister Andrii Klyuev (embezzlement of 170 million hryvnias), the case of ex-deputy minister of defense Ihor Halimon (signing of annexes military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine), the case of State Enterprise "Antonov" (waste of 18 million hryvnias), the case of First Deputy Minister of Community Development Vasyl Lozynskyi (a bribe of $400,000), as well as the case against officials of the Ministry of Defense who are suspected of embezzlement (the so-called case "Golden eggs for 17 hryvnias").
Records of Knyazev
According to the mass media, one of the participants in the Knyazev case - lawyer Oleg Goretskyi - was acquainted with the deputy head of the SAPS Andriy Sinyuk. Sources report that Goretsky communicated with him on various legal issues.
"Deputy head of SAP Andriy Sinyuk held two meetings with Oleg Goretsky, whose law firm represented the interests of the company whose property was seized as part of the case being investigated by NABU detectives. After the mentioned person began to show interest in the activities of SAP, any communication with him was terminated," the press service noted.
