You're reading: Court reinstates Nasirov, ex-fiscal service chief charged with corruption

Former State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, a suspect in a major corruption case, must be reinstated in his job, Kyiv District Administrative Court ruled on Dec. 11.

According to the ruling, Nasirov must be reinstated immediately and compensation must be paid to him for wrongful dismissal.

The Cabinet of Ministers said it would appeal against Nasirov’s reinstatement.

The Kyiv District Administrative Court is headed by Pavlo Vovk, who is accused of having links to Oleksandr Hranovsky, a lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc. Hranovsky denies influencing the judiciary.

Nasirov was fired in March 2017 on the formal grounds that he has British citizenship, but the court claimed on Dec. 11 that this was unlawful.

Under Ukrainian law, officials are banned from having dual citizenship.

In March 2017 Nasirov, an ex-lawmaker from President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc, was charged with abusing his powers by illegally allowing participants of an alleged corrupt scheme at state gas producer Ukrgazvydobuvannya to delay tax payments, causing losses to the state of Hr 2 billion ($74 million.). He was fired, and a trial against him began in December 2017.

Fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a suspect in the same corruption case that involves Nasirov, has claimed that Poroshenko instructed Nasirov to delay tax payments for Onyshchenko’s gas firms and used the unpaid tax money to finance Poroshenko’s political projects.

Poroshenko has repeatedly denied Onyshchenko’s allegations, dismissing them as a smear campaign orchestrated by the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, in November Nasirov’s successor on the job, Myroslav Prodan, was charged with unlawful enrichment.