Kudritsky accused the State Bureau of Investigation of pressuring Hrynkevych and his son: what were the motives?
12 February 14:44
OPINION
Former head of NEC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi has claimed that employees of the State Bureau of Investigations are allegedly putting pressure on Ihor Hrynkevych and his son, who are currently in custody. The former head of Ukrenergo reported this on Facebook, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to Kudritsky, law enforcement officers recently offered both suspects freedom in exchange for false testimony against him in a “fabricated criminal case.”
“The relevant testimony of his lawyer (Grynkevych’s lawyer, ed.), who was present during this conversation, was heard during yesterday’s court hearing,” Kudritsky said, adding a video recording of the court hearing .
“The day after they refused to ‘cooperate,’ both suspects (the Grinkevichs, ed.) were transferred to a special ‘punishment’ cell, apparently so that they would ‘reconsider’ their behavior. As I understand it, they are still there,” he added.
Kudritsky explained the DBR’s motivation as follows:
“They need to obtain at least one document, at least one piece of evidence, to justify the suspicion (in the Ukrenergo tender case, ed.). Not in order to win in court. But to protect themselves in case I initiate a criminal case against the employees and management of the SBI and the Office of the Prosecutor General for unlawful criminal prosecution. This is part 2 of Article 372 of the Criminal Code – from 7 to 12 years. And spoiler alert – I will do everything to ensure that these scoundrels learn this important life lesson.”
Kudritsky also criticized the reform of law enforcement agencies.
What the Grinkevichs’ lawyer said
“Under the pretext of conducting investigative actions, Igor Grinkevich was taken from the detention center, and before this interrogation, a DBR employee offered Igor Grinkevich to give incriminating testimony against Kudritsky.
In return, Igor would be released from custody for himself and his son. I don’t know how they would have ensured this, but the key point is that it was a bargain. They also promised punishment – not related to imprisonment.
Igor categorically refused to give false testimony against Kudrytskyi, because giving false testimony against a person he had never seen was not in his nature,” said lawyer Kostyantyn Doroshenko in the courtroom.
“The Kudrytskyi case”
In October last year, the State Bureau of Investigations announced that it had charged Lviv businessman Igor Hrynkevych and detained former head of NEC Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi as part of criminal proceedings concerning the alleged “fraudulent appropriation of tens of millions of hryvnias from a state-owned energy company.”
According to the investigation, the parties organized tenders for the reconstruction of the external fencing of substations of the Southern and Western power systems. As a result of the tenders, two contracts were signed for a total amount of over UAH 68 million.
“After signing the contracts, Ukrenergo transferred advance payments of over UAH 13.7 million to the contractor. As established by the investigation, these funds were immediately withdrawn through fictitious companies and appropriated without any intention of performing construction work,” the investigation stated.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi categorically denied the investigation’sversion , calling the case against him a “political order.“
Ihor Hrynkevych also rejected the accusations, noting that “he, like Kudrytskyi, had never even been questioned during the seven years of the investigation into the Ukrenergo case.”
