Ukraine's new Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin has been praised as a professional but many argue that he is a man of the same old law enforcement system that has stalled high-profile criminal cases.
Shokin was approved as prosecutor general by the Vekhovna Rada on Feb. 10 with 318 votes in his favor in the 450-seat parliament. The move followed the resignation of his predecessor Vitaly Yarema, who has been blamed for the slow pace of investigations and alleged corruption and nepotism at his office.
Poroshenko said at the Verkhovna Rada that he had known Shokin for over 15 years, arguing that he had good reputation and a “character of steel.”
Poroshenko praised Shokin’s investigation of the murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. Four Interior Ministry employees were sentenced to prison terms for the murder in 2008 to 2013.
He also commended Shokin’s work after the 2004 Orange Revolution, saying that he was in charge of investigating a separatist congress of pro-Russian lawmakers in Severodonetsk in Luhansk Oblast in November 2004.
“If Shokin had been allowed to complete this investigation, it would have been a good preventive measure against the germ of separatism,” Poroshenko said.
Yuriy Lutsenko, head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s faction at the Vekrhovna Rada, agreed with the president, saying that during Shokin’s stint as a deputy prosecutor general in 2004 to 2007, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry were actively cracking down on crime but those activities were halted when Shokin stepped down in 2007.
Lutsenko was interior minister in 2005-2006 and in 2007-2010. Shokin’s first stint as a deputy prosecutor general was in 2002-2003, and in June 2014 he was appointed a deputy of Yarema.
Another argument in favor of Shokin’s appointment was the idea that it would the unity of the ruling coalition.
“Today it’s a test for us on whether we have a coalition that supports the actions of the president and prime minister,” Viktoria Syumar of the People’s Front said.
Shokin was also praised by Valentyna Telychenko, a Ukrainian lawyer who defended former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Lutsenko in what many see as politically motivated trials under former President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Viktor Shokin, unlike everyone who had so far occupied the position of prosecutor general, is a professional,” she told the Kyiv Post by e-mail. “He understands what it means to prove a suspect’s guilt, knows how to carry out investigations and has experience in solving the most complicated criminal cases.”
But Shokin’s critics argued that he would not be up to the task of investigating the high-profile cases against Yanukovych’s allies.
“Shokin has been a deputy of Yarema for a long time and also shares the responsibility for a lack of results, like Yarema,” said Oleh Lyashko, leader of the populist Radical Party. “He has worked at the Prosecutor General’s Office for many years and is a founder of that system… Instead of fighting corruption, this system creates it.”
Oleh Berezyuk, head of the Samopomich party, said that a new prosecutor general should “not be dependent on the system in which he was raised” and doubted that Shokin would fit this criterion.
“(Shokin is an) experienced, strong and professional prosecutor,” he said. “But we need a strong, professional, free and independent prosecutor general.”
Yegor Sobolev of Samopomich was also critical of Shokin. He asked him why he had failed to keep his promise to punish Serhiy Kivalov for rigging the 2004 presidential election. Shokin replied that he lacked evidence to sentence Kivalov, who headed the Central Election Commission at the time and is currently a member of the Vekhovna Rada.
In the 2004 election, Yanukovych was a candidate supported by Russia and then-President Leonid Kuchma. He was initially declared the winner due to presumed voting fraud that led to the Orange Revolution and to the election of Yanukovych’s opponent Viktor Yushchenko as president.
Another Samopomich parliamentarian, Hopko, said by phone that her faction was disappointed after meeting with Shokin on Feb. 9. “We didn’t get any answers for our questions,” she said.
He has been praised for investigating the Gongadze case but the organizers of the murder have not been identified, Hopko said. Allegations that Kuchma was behind the murder led to large-scale protests in 2000-2001.
Hopko also said that Samopomich had also asked Shokin about unconfirmed media reports about his alleged ties to businessman Oleksiy Chebotaryov, a Yanukovych ally, and he denied them.
Another complaint against Shokin is that he was presumably chosen for his loyalty to Poroshenko rather than for other reasons. Hopko said Shokin had confirmed he was had ties to Poroshenko.
Shokin has also been criticized for nepotism.
“We have a real prosecutorial family clan in the country,” Sevgil Musaieva-Borovyk, editor-in-chief of Ukrainskaya Pravda, wrote on Facebook on Feb. 10. “… (Shokin’s) daughter (Tetyana) Gornostayeva is a deputy of the Odessa prosecutor. Her husband Oleksiy Gornostayev is a deputy of Odessa’s Kievsky district prosecutor. His father Nikolai Gornostayev is a deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast prosecutor.”
Despite the differences, both supporters and critics of Shokin shared the same goals.
The major task set for the new prosecutor general is to investigate corruption cases against Yanukovych’s allies and the killing of more than 100 protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution.
“The main task is to punish those responsible for the Maidan murders,” Poroshenko said. “That will make sure that the government will never use force to suppress democracy… Every crime must be punished.”
Another objective is to complete the lustration process and fire Yanukovych-era prosecutors.
“It’s impossible to cleanse the country with the dirty hands of the dictatorial regime’s henchmen who are still occupying their positions,” Lutsenko said.
Poroshenko said that foreigners could be appointed to the Prosecutor General’s office to facilitate its reform.
