Court closes case against anti-graft detective detained amid conflict with President's Office

A Ukrainian court has closed a criminal case against a detective at the center of the ongoing conflict between the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and presidentially controlled law enforcement agencies, the Prosecutor General's Office said on June 4.

Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi District Court exempted the NABU detective, Viktor Husarov, from criminal liability, Maryana Hayovska, a spokesperson for the Prosecutor General's Office, told the Kyiv Independent.

Husarov was detained in July amid a conflict between the President's Office and the NABU, which says the authorities are trying to eliminate its independence. The Prosecutor General's Office and the Security Service (SBU), which are seen as loyal to the President's Office, have arrested NABU employees, accusing them of having ties to Russia and portraying the crackdown as an attempt to counteract Moscow's alleged influence on the bureau.

Supporters of the NABU have accused the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU of fabricating cases against NABU detectives in order to pressure the bureau. The President's Office did not respond to requests for comment, while the Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU declined to comment on the accusations.

Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has dropped the high treason charges against Husarov, Hayovska said on June 4.

Additionally, Husarov has pled guilty to the charge of unauthorized use of information but the statute of limitations for the charge has expired, she said.

"The court did not close the case because no crime had been committed, because the prosecution withdrew the charges, or because the unauthorized handling of information could not be proven," Hayovska added. "Rather, the court's decision was based on the expiration of the statute of limitations, after the defendant admitted guilt."

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, Husarov passed on information about Ukrainian citizens obtained through Interior Ministry databases to a law enforcement officer who moved to Russian-occupied Crimea in February 2014.

Investigators examined the possibility of high treason in Russia's interests but were unable to establish sufficient evidence, Hayovska said.

The Security Service claimed last year that Husarov had received instructions from Dmytro Ivantsov, a deputy of pro-Russian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's security chief who helped him flee Ukraine in 2014 and was allegedly recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

The SBU said that Husarov had been communicating with Ivantsov from 2012 to 2015, before he started working at the NABU.

The NABU said in July that the SBU had not provided any evidence that Husarov was passing any information to Russian intelligence agencies.

The bureau told the Kyiv Independent on June 4 that "this case was part of a broader campaign aimed at undermining the NABU's independence, and it has now finally reached its logical conclusion."

"The NABU detective spent nearly five months in pretrial detention without the right to bail... despite there being no grounds for his detention," Anastasia Radina, head of parliament's anti-corruption committee, wrote on Facebook. "What the heads of those agencies presented to the public as the 'exposure of Russian influence within the NABU' did not merely collapse in court — prosecutors ultimately had nothing to bring before the court in the first place."

She added that "it is yet another indictment of Ukraine's unreformed law enforcement system."

"It is a vivid illustration of why Ukraine needs new procedures for appointing both the head of the State Investigation Bureau and the prosecutor general," Radina argued. "The prosecutor general should have prevented cases against detectives built on fabricated evidence from ever reaching court. But Kravchenko not only failed to do so; he effectively lent his imprimatur to the whole affair by personally taking part in the relevant press conferences."

The ongoing conflict between the NABU and the President's Office began in July, when the SBU searched NABU premises and detained Husarov and Ruslan Mahamedrasulov, another NABU detective, charging him with "aiding the aggressor state" — Russia.

At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law that subordinated the NABU to the prosecutor general, an official appointed by the president. The bureau's independence was later restored following the first major protests during the all-out war, but the clash continued.

Critics argue that the Husarov and Mahamedrasulov cases were a political vendetta for the NABU cases against Zelensky allies involving state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom, the biggest corruption investigation during Zelensky's presidency.

The conflict appeared to have subsided as Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned after the NABU searched his premises in November. Yermak was eventually charged with money laundering in May.

In December both Husarov and Mahamedrasulov were released from detention facilities. Husarov was placed under house arrest, and Mahamedrasulov was released under travel restrictions.

Husarov case

In July, the SBU also detained another NABU detective, Vitaly Husarov, and charged him with high treason.

The security service claimed that he had received instructions from Dmytro Ivantsov, a deputy of pro-Russian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych's security chief who helped him flee Ukraine in 2014 and was allegedly recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).