You're reading: Court: Ex-tax chief Nasirov was fired illegally, won’t be reinstated (UPDATED)

Editor’s Note: This story initially reported that the appellate court upheld the reinstatement of former tax service chief Roman Nasirov. It was corrected with new information. 

On Feb. 17, the Sixth Kyiv Appellate Administrative Court upheld a December 2018 ruling of the Kyiv District Administrative Court that Roman Nasirov had been unlawfully dismissed from his former position as the head of the State Fiscal Service.

Nasirov withdrew his claim to be reinstated to his old job, and the court granted his request. Nasirov still faces trial in the High Anti-Corruption Court on charges of fraud and abuse of office.

Nasirov was fired in January 2018 on the grounds that he had a British passport in addition to his Ukrainian one. The law prohibits state officials from having dual citizenship. Nasirov denied possessing two passports.

Later, a court found that his dismissal violated formal procedures, overturned it and ordered the government to pay him compensation of Hr 183,342 ($6,600 by the exchange rate at that time). The Cabinet of Ministers filed an appeal against the ruling in January 2019.

Nasirov also filed a withdrawal from the compensation but the appellate court on Feb. 17 didn’t satisfy it.

Meanwhile, the State Fiscal Service is currently in the process of reorganization after the Ukrainian government separated its two key functions into separate agencies for taxes and customs in March 2019. The move was part of a reform demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

The fiscal service continues to serve as a tax police unit until a bureau to investigate financial crimes is created, former interim head Denys Gutenko told the Kyiv Post.

Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denys Malyuska wrote on Facebook that the ruling does not mean Nasirov will return to his old job.

“The (appellate) court upheld the decision of the court of the first instance that Nasirov’s dismissal had been unlawful,” he wrote. “There is no forcible reinstatement.”

At publication time, neither Nasirov nor the Cabinet of Ministers had responded to a request for comment.

Read more: Disgraced ex-tax chief wants to be president

Nasirov was suspended from his position in March 2017 — months before he was officially fired — when he was arrested on charges of fraud and abuse of office that incurred Hr 2 billion ($74 million) in losses to the state budget. He denied the charges.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau found that Nasirov authorized a delay in paying a tax on subsoil use for three gas extraction companies affiliated with fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who is suspected of defrauding state gas producer UkrGasVydobuvannya out of Hr 740 million ($27 million).

His trial began over two years ago and has not yet finished. In November 2019, the case was moved to the High Anti-Corruption Court, a court that did not yet exist when the case began.