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.
