Ukraine's Bureau of Investigations claims court forces it to open case against head of Anti-Corruption Centre

The State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine (SBI) has reported that it was forced to initiate criminal proceedings against Vitalii Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Centre of Ukraine, by the court.

Source: SBI in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda

Details: The SBI stated that on 6 October 2023 it had received a statement from Rostyslav Kravets, the head of NGO Civil Council of Integrity, about "possible unlawful actions of Anti-Corruption Centre Head Shabunin".

The Kyiv City Territorial Directorate of the SBI sent the statement to the Central Directorate of the Military Law Enforcement Service in the city of Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast for an internal investigation.

In November, Kravets went to court, which motioned for the SBI to investigate the report (the decision was made by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of the city of Kyiv – ed.). To execute the court decision, the SBI initiated two criminal proceedings under the articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine about falsifying documents and evading military service in November 2023.

The response of the SBI reads that on 19 December 2023 the prosecutor approved the decision to join the two aforementioned proceedings into one.

To the question of Ukrainska Pravda about which stage the investigation is in, which investigative measures have been conducted and what their results are, the SBI only stated that "the investigation is ongoing".

Background:

• Vitalii Shabunin, the head of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, said that Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation has filed two criminal proceedings against him.
• Shabunin stressed that he was not evading military service, but rather was mobilised at his own request to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the early days of the war.
• Shabunin called Rostyslav Kravets "the linchpin of the Kremlin's network of Telegram channels, as well as being a henchman of Pavlo Vovk [head of the Kyiv District Administrative Court]".

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