It looks like Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin wants to sideline Serhiy Horbatiuk, a top prosecutor in charge of the investigations into the murders of more than 100 EuroMaidan protesters.
Horbatiuk, a favored choice for Shokin’s job among civil society activists, told the Kyiv Post on March 23 that he had been offered the position of Lviv Oblast’s chief prosecutor.
Vladyslav Kutsenko, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, portrayed it as a simple transfer, telling the news.liga.net website that the firing of Lviv Oblast’s chief prosecutor in western Ukraine created the opening.
Sviatoslav Tsegolko, a spokesman for President Petro Poroshenko, did not reply immediately to a request for comment.
But given the highly charged situation, in which lawmakers and activists are clamoring for Shokin to be fired, citing his ineffectual record in fighting corruption, critics are crying foul.
The attempt to transfer Horbatiuk, who has refused the offer, came after some civil society activists nominated him to replace Shokin.
Shokin, who has denied numerous allegations of corruption and obstruction of justice, resigned last month but is still on the job. His resignation has to be ratified by the Verkhovna Rada.
The alleged pressure on Horbatiuk, head of the department of trials in absentia, also follows Deputy Prosecutor General Davit Sakvarelidze’s accusations that Shokin and his first deputy Yury Sevruk are putting pressure on reformist investigators and have put them out of work.
Another reformist official, Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaly Kasko, stepped down in February, citing corruption and sabotage of investigations.
Horbatiuk told the Kyiv Post the leadership of the prosecutor’s office had argued that the appointment would be a promotion, although critics see this as a demotion tantamount to exile.
He also said that the presidential administration or other authorities had not held any talks with him on appointing him as prosecutor general.
Mustafa Nayyem, a lawmaker from the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko, wrote on Facebook that one of Shokin’s deputies had threatened to fire Horbatiuk after his refusal to accept the transfer.
Lawyers of the murdered EuroMaidan protesters, known as the Heavenly Hundred, said in a statement that the authorities were “trying to fire Horbatiuk from the position of the department for trials in absentia, which is a usual practice regarding undesirable people at the Prosecutor General’s Office.”
The lawyers linked the offer made to Horbatiuk to their recent proposal to appoint him as prosecutor general. The proposal was supported by the Euro-Optimists, a reformist group of parliamentarians.
“The president is ready to sacrifice even the investigation into the murders of the Heavenly Hundred because otherwise his candidates for the position of prosecutor general would look pathetic compared with civil society’s candidates,” Yevhenia Zakrevska, one of the lawyers, wrote on Facebook. “And, which is worse, the purpose of this offer is to derail EuroMaidan investigations.”
Lawyers of the Heavenly Hundred have praised Horbatiuk’s efforts to investigate EuroMaidan cases, though they said Shokin has been sabotaging them. The Prosecutor General’s Office has denied the accusations.
Other reformist candidates for the position of prosecutor general being discussed by civic activists are Sakvarelidze and Kasko.
However, Poroshenko and his faction are reportedly considering appointing loyalists of the president instead. These are Sevruk, Deputy Prosecutor General Yury Stolyarchuk and Yury Lutsenko, head of the Poroshenko Bloc’s faction in parliament.
Critics say that the Prosecutor General’s Office would remain a political tool incapable of delivering justice if one of these is appointed.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
