Ukrainian prosecutor general's whereabouts unknown since latest anti-corruption operation began – sources
Sources in political circles have told Ukrainska Pravda that the whereabouts of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko have been unknown since the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) launched Operation Carthage, an investigation into allegations that a senior official at the Prosecutor General's Office has been running a criminal organisation that protected a network of scam call centres and laundered the proceeds. The Prosecutor General's Office says Kravchenko was at his workplace on Saturday.
Source: Mykhailo Tkach, Head of UP's investigative journalism team, citing sources in political circles
Details: Tkach noted that Kravchenko entered the government quarter by car and has not been seen since.
Sources told UP that the prosecutor general's whereabouts have been unknown for over 12 hours as of the time of this report.
Quote from Tkach: "Remember, yesterday the Prosecutor General's Office denied UP's report that searches were going on at Kravchenko's premises. Apparently they think that if the Prosecutor General is hiding, then the searches somehow don't count. This is probably the first time something like this has happened at such a high level.
Yet only yesterday the Prosecutor General's Office said it would be assisting with the investigation.
But how is it supposed to do that if the person has fled the search and may have been destroying evidence for more than 12 hours?"
Update: The Prosecutor General's Office told Ukrainska Pravda that according to official information, Kravchenko has been at his workplace "since this morning".
UP has asked follow-up questions about where he was on the evening of 4 September when the searches were being conducted, and is awaiting a response.
Background:
- Sources told Ukrainska Pravda that on the evening of 4 September, NABU and SAPO were conducting searches at premises belonging to Kravchenko, his deputy Mariia Vdovychenko and Oleh Kiper, Head of Odesa Oblast Military Administration. The Prosecutor General's Office later denied that Kravchenko's premises had been searched.
- On the evening of 4 September, it was reported that NABU and SAPO were conducting investigative actions at the Prosecutor General's Office as part of a special operation to expose a criminal organisation.
- The Prosecutor General's Office said it will cooperate fully with the anti-corruption agencies in the case concerning the operation of scam call centres.
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