A top prosecutor’s statement that he had been offered a $10 million per month bribe has triggered a public debate on why the bribe giver was not identified or arrested.
Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze, who says he was offered the bribe, told the Kyiv Post on April 20 that the incident would be investigated.
He said he could not comment further now.
Sakvarelidze says that Ukraine’s current Criminal Procedure Code makes it difficult to detain and prosecute the suspect but critics say he had the authority to arrest him when the alleged crime was committed.
He told Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnya in an April 17 interview that he had been offered $10 million per month as an allowance.
Sakvarelidze, who reformed the prosecutor’s office in Georgia before being appointed to overhaul its Ukrainian equivalent in February, said that the current Criminal Procedure Code made it difficult to hold the bribe giver responsible, Andrei Chernikov, the author of the interview, said in a Facebook post on April 19.
Sakvarelidze said he could have reported the crime but would not be able to present evidence, and the person who offered the bribe made sure that there is no evidence.
It was not clear whether there were any eyewitnesses and whether the incident was recorded on video or audio – something that would be considered evidence in court.
Sakvarelidze also said that he did not have investigative functions, which was also an obstacle.
Natalia Stativko, the Interior Ministry’s spokeswoman, said by phone that the ministry could only investigate the case once Sakvarelidze files an official report on the crime.
Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party, and Vadym Rabynovych, a lawmaker with the Opposition Bloc, on April 20 urged Sakvarelidze to divulge the bribe giver’s name and initiate a criminal case against him.
“An authorized official” has a right to detain a person if a crime is being committed, under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Ihor Fedorenko, a partner at Ukrainian law firm Aver Lex, told the Kyiv Post. “A deputy prosecutor is an authorized official who has a right to detain a person when he attempts to commit a crime,” Fedorenko said.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the police can also arrest a bribe giver as part of a setup with the supposed bribe taker pretending to agree to the deal.
If it was impossible to detain the suspect, Sakvarelidze was supposed to initiate a criminal case against him in 24 hours, Fedorenko said.
“If we have really launched a crackdown on corruption, the deputy general prosecutor should have set an example by recording information on this situation in the state register and starting an investigation in order to interrogate the bribe giver and show him to the public,” he said.
The case can also be handled by the newly-established Anti-Corruption Bureau, Fedorenko said.
Artem Sytnik, head of the bureau, was not available by phone.
Meanwhile, Parliament is currently considering a bill that would make it easier to detain suspects in corruption investigations and would make bail impossible in such cases.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
