Andriy Marusov, head of Ukrainian branch of Transparency International anti-corruption watchdog, says he was attacked twice late on July 15 in Kyiv and his laptop with important files was stolen.
Marusov believes these incidents were connected with his work. The laptop had a data about the current activity of Transparency International and the organization’s archive, he said.
“I consider this as a pressure at Ukraine’s department of Transparency International related to its anti-corruption activity,” Marusov wrote on his Facebook.
Transparency International condemned the return of a military prosecutor Kostiantyn Kulyk to his post. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Kulyk of corruption and illegal enrichment.
Marusov said that Kulyk and Chief Executive Prosecutor Anatoly Matios recently publicly accused Vitaly Kasko, a member of Transparency International board of directors, of meddling the investigation of corruption activity of oligarch Sergiy Kurchenko.
Earlier, the same accusations also voiced lawmaker Serhiy Pashynsky, head of the parliament committee on security and defence.
Marusov claimed that late on July 15 when walking in Podil area, some unknown man called him by name and invited to walk to a park. When Marusov was distracted by a streets musician’s performance, that man stole his bag with a laptop in it. Later Marusov was also twice attacked on the streets and reported to the local police department about those incidents.
“I don’t believe these events just randomly coincided though I don’t have documented proof that robbery and attacks were intentionally directed,” Marusov said.
Yana Semenyuk, deputy head of the Kyiv police press service, said the police registered Marusov’s complaints at about 2 am on July 16 and opened a criminal investigation on theft suspects.
“The perpetrator suspected of theft is being searched,” she said, adding that the police didn’t get any information about attacks at Marusov.
of course, as a good boy, he had his back-ups safely stored....
Ukrainian authorities have not yet learned (or don't want to learn?) the importance of public opinion - even if that opinion may be in error - in appointing officials in the three components fighting corruption: police, judiciary, prosecutors.
The public is already very suspicious of everyone and everything (for good reason). When there are serious allegations of impropriety, even if those allegations should later be proven to be wrong, that, alone, is sufficient to disqualify individuals for public office. The U.S puts a great deal of importance not only on the reality but also on appearances because, ultimately, public trust or mistrust in its government is what matters.
In this case, individuals such as Kulyk should not be appointed unless and until they are fully vindicated of prior misdeeds.
Its time for the Ukrainian authorities to wisen up to the reality that they are responsible to the public and must insist that its officials avoid even the appearance of impropriety and corruption. The ability to conduct oneself in such a manner should be one of the qualities considered for public office.
You are correct in regard to the US with the exception of the Clinton's. Hillary's recent skating away from the email scandal is an absolute scandal for US Federal law enforcement. The American public have little faith in the current government and this last escapade with Hillary is the straw that has broken the camels back.
And, since you want to bring in the USA, which is vastly superior to a Russian legal system, why not balance the equation and talk about the corruption, breaking of laws and institution of a KGB style regime from the Putin St George Nationalists controlling Russian society!....just in case you cannot focus, this article is about Ukraine and the need to wipe out the Russian mentality of Ukraine's current legal and judicial issues.
Perhaps it was a poor attempt at irony. It is apparent to anyone who has a brain that Russia and by extension the separatist controlled Donbas have a long way to go meet anything resembling a fair and impartial legal system.
There is the old saying "You can talk the talk but can you walk the walk?" My country the USA goes to great lengths to tell Ukraine to root out corruption by cleaning up the judiciary, police and the prosecutor generals office along with the general business climate which they have been slowly taking steps to do these things; I was just taken aback by the total "pot calling kettle black" moment last week with the Clinton email affair.
I was in Ukraine for 17 days and returned a week ago Saturday and I consider myself a huge supporter of Ukraine and have a reasonable amount of confidence that Ukraine will succeed even against Russia's war against her.