Number of agreements in corruption cases has increased several times in two years – Vlasenko
25 December 10:41
Over the past two years, the number of agreements in criminal proceedings in Ukraine has increased two to three times, but the vast majority of them remain closed to the public. This raises serious doubts about the transparency and effectiveness of the entire anti-corruption system. This was stated by MP Serhiy Vlasenko in an interview with the "Komersant Ukrainian" YouTube channel.
“I’m not ready to rely 100% on the data I’m going to present, but I have it. Over the past two years, the number of deals has doubled or tripled. And all the deals are closed. All deals are not public. And this raises many, many questions. I also understand that if a case has been going on for ten years, an investigation is underway, the person involved is already poor, whether he is guilty or not is another story, the person has been under all this for ten years. Then they come to him and say: let’s make a deal. They say, “Yes, to hell with you, let’s do it. You’re giving me a suspended sentence, to hell with it, a suspended sentence, let’s do it. That is, it raises the question: how does this all work and why does it all work?” he said.
According to him, there should be a separate procedural control by the Prosecutor General in cases involving MPs.
“I am convinced that in cases involving MPs, there should definitely be procedural control by the Prosecutor General, because there are special powers related to the status of a MP. But unfortunately, this is not how it works now,” Vlasenko emphasized.
He also drew attention to the fact that even after the proceedings are completed, the texts of the agreements remain classified. He cited the Odesa airport case as an example.
“The agreement on the airport is absolutely classified. It is not open, it is not public. There was a public discussion about whether the terms of this agreement generally comply with the basic principles of criminal justice. We do not know whether the damage caused by this agreement was compensated, whether the airport was returned to the Odesa community, what happened there, how it all went down – we do not know any of this anymore,” he said.
He also questioned the grounds for keeping such documents secret.
“The case is closed, the case is over, and it has nothing to do with other cases. Why then is the agreement classified? Why is the agreement still classified?” Vlasenko summarized.
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