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Hromadske TV: Six need-to-know things about Yuriy Lutsenko (VIDEO)

Yuriy Lutsenko has been in politics almost half his life and throughout Ukraine’s independence, having joined to the Socialist party in 1991. Last year, despite lacking a law degree or background in law-enforcement, he was appointed the country’s Prosecutor General. On the day of his appointment he announced that he would, “be in the Prosecutor General’s office for 1 and half to 2 years,” and immediately declared that his main task was to change the “Prosecutor General’s burial ground” and restore the Prosecutor’s office to a “real advocate of the people and state”.

Anastasia Krasnosilska, an expert from Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Centre, told Hromadske “We do not see any major successes from Prosecutor General Lutsenko.” Although PG Lutsenko promised to radically change the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office, he has not acted accordingly. Inaction on the Prosecutor General’s part has led to cases against Yanukovych and his cronies for economic crimes not being submitted to court, and lost Ukraine the opportunity to recover millions of dollars in assets frozen in the European Union. Furthermore, “hollywood style” arrests of high-profile officials have not resulted in any cases being sent to court. In the words of Krasnosilska, “Prosecutorial reform in Ukraine has failed.”

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