Transparency International Ukraine calls on the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) not to support draft law No. 12414 "On amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code regarding the peculiarities of pre-trial investigation of criminal offences related to the disappearance of persons under special circumstances during martial law", as it "may destroy key guarantees of independence of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO)".

Source: Transparency International Ukraine on Telegram

Details:The organisation emphasised that this draft law gives the prosecutor general the powers to:

• to take cases away from the NABU and assign investigations to other bodies;
• to be the de facto head of the SAPO and delegate the powers of a SAPO prosecutor to other prosecutors;
• to provide NABU detectives with mandatory written instructions;
• to independently close cases on suspicion of top officials.

It is also noted that this draft law will significantly limit the procedural autonomy of the SAPO.

In particular, the SAPO prosecutors will be deprived of the opportunity to determine the jurisdiction of the NABU in exceptional cases; the head of the SAPO will not be able to resolve disputes over jurisdiction in cases that can be investigated by the NABU and will not have the authority to change appeals and cassation appeals filed by the SAPO prosecutors.

Transparency International Ukraine says it has received confirmation from a number of sources that the vote is scheduled for 22 July. This shows that MPs are also "seriously violating Article 116 of the Verkhovna Rada's Rules of Procedure" which concerns the deadlines for submitting proposals and amendments to the draft law being prepared for the second reading.

"This poses a direct threat to the independence of the NABU, one of the key anti-corruption bodies established with the support of international partners as an institution protected from political influence. We call on MPs not to support such legislative changes and not to reverse the results of the reforms that we have all been consistently achieving since 2014," Transparency International Ukraine said.

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