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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The military prosecutor’s office is investigating a proceeding on large-scale embezzlement and abuse of official position within the leadership structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
This was told to reporters Wednesday by Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios, reports Ukrayinska Pravda.
Earlier, at a briefing, First Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Sevruk said that the case involving former deputy of Arsen Avakov, Serhiy Chebotar, was transferred to the military prosecutor’s office.
According to Matios, the proceeding was opened on the facts of misappropriation and embezzlement of property on an especially large scale or by an organized group.
“The proceeding is registered, transferred to the military prosecutor’s office, and I hope, and am even convinced, that it will be brought to a logical conclusion and that suspicions will be announced to the persons who were involved in the embezzlement of both funds and other assets through the use of governmental powers,” Matios said.
Asked whether Chebotar is a suspect in this case, Matios answered evasively:
“Since the criminal proceeding concerns one of the structural units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the first deputy prosecutor general voiced the surname of the responsible person who oversaw this area.”
As is known, in early April Member of Parliament Yuriy Levchenko said that the SBU conducted searches in the offices of Ministry of Internal Affairs officials, including those of Serhiy Chebotar, and that items found during the searches indicate that the ministry was protecting corrupt schemes.
Recall: the attack occurred in the village of Lisnyky, Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district. Journalists were filming a mansion officially owned by the daughter of former deputy minister of the MIA Serhiy Chebotar. Until recently, the site of the mansion had been a forest reserved for a nature reserve. While filming the mansion, the deputy minister’s son-in-law, Oleh Polishchuk, came out of the yard. The man tried to take the camera and even chased the cameraman; at the same time he shouted to a security guard to bring him a knife. The video of this chase was recorded on a dashcam and handed over to law enforcement.
Shortly after the first attack Polishchuk returned with two assistants. The attackers arrived in a white Volkswagen Transporter with license plates AA1123, blocked the film crew’s road, broke into the crew’s car and committed a robbery, seizing the camera and the dashcam. In addition, they injured the cameraman. The attackers’ vehicle belonged to the head of Polishchuk’s transport company, Serhiy Havrylko, who, together with Polishchuk, also carried out the attack.
Two criminal cases were opened over the attack on journalists from the Our Money project (every Tuesday at 22:35 on the ZIK channel): Art. 186 part 2 (“Robbery combined with violence,” due to the seizure of the journalists’ video camera and dashcam) and Art. 171 part 1 (“Intentional obstruction of lawful professional journalistic activity”).
However, even with video evidence, the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn prosecutor’s office was unable to bring charges against Chebotar’s son-in-law. For two months representatives of the judiciary conducted experiments, gathered documents, simulated vigorous activity… Ultimately, due to “ineffective investigation” the case was transferred to the Irpin city prosecutor’s office. There is no justification in the official response for why exactly this prosecutor’s office was chosen.
The Kyiv-Sviatoshyn prosecutor’s office case was handled by prosecutor Ihor Budnik.
On 22 June the film crew injured in the case came to Mr. Budnik to file a petition to familiarize themselves with the case materials. However, the prosecutor did not inform the victims that the case had already on 19 June, due to his ineffective work, been transferred to another agency. Instead, he promised to consider the petition within a few days. The victims learned that the case had been transferred to Irpin only from the new investigative prosecutor, Serhiy Shubchyk. Meanwhile Ihor Budnik refused to comment on the transfer of the case to another prosecutor. And he called journalists’ questions about whether the case would reach trial a provocation.
Thus, while the prosecutor’s office “ineffectively” investigates, the Chebotar family has already recovered from the incident.
However, not only Ihor Budnik refused to comment on the investigation. The General Prosecutor’s Office also ignores questions from Our Money journalists. In response to an official request about whether Serhiy Chebotar has been summoned for questioning, law enforcement answered as follows:
“The General Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a pre-trial investigation of a criminal proceeding on the fact of unlawful acquisition of another’s property on an especially large scale… During the pre-trial investigation, the involvement of former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Serhiy Chebotar in the above-mentioned crime is being checked.”
Recall: at the end of May SBU investigators handed a summons to the ex-deputy of Avakov for questioning at the GPU. However, whether he ever appeared for questioning is being kept secret by the GPU. Likewise, the prosecutor’s office refused to provide the criminal proceeding number within which “the involvement of Serhiy Chebotar in the above-mentioned crime is being checked.” Again, a secret of the investigation.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also ignored the question. Asked to provide a list of all advisors to Minister Arsen Avakov with full names and appointment dates, the MIA replied: 9 full-time and 18 part-time advisors are employed. Recall that media recently circulated information that former deputy minister Chebotar was appointed an advisor after his dismissal.
So whether Serhiy Chebotar is going to questioning or to work for Arsen Avakov is unknown.
Former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Serhiy Chebotar, who fled to Vienna after the scandal over the beating of ZIK channel journalists, has already returned to Ukraine and, according to acquaintances, became an adviser to Arsen Avakov. This cannot be confirmed or denied because the MIA refuses to provide the minister’s list of advisers.
As reported, the investigation into the attack on journalists near the Chebotar family home is being conducted ineffectively.
The son-in-law of former deputy minister of the MIA Serhiy Chebotar — Oleh Polishchuk, who during the attack on ZIK journalists demanded a knife and still remains a witness — has not even been issued a notice of suspicion despite the attack being recorded on video. For two months the Kyiv-Sviatoshyn district prosecutor’s office failed to even issue a notice of suspicion to the person whose attack was captured on video. Due to the “ineffective conduct of the pre-trial investigation,” on 19 June the Kyiv region prosecutor’s office transferred the case to the Irpin city prosecutor’s office.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Матіос натякнув, що справу про зловживання Чеботаря доведуть до логічного кінця". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Bihus.Info.
