Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a bill on the independence of anti-corruption bodies to parliament, which he announced on the morning of July 23.
The bill, No. 13533, has been posted on the parliament’s website.
As explained by NABU, bill No. 13533, submitted by the President of Ukraine as urgent, restores all procedural powers and guarantees of independence of NABU and SAP.
NABU and SAP participated in the preparation of the text and call on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to adopt the President’s initiative as a basis and as a whole as soon as possible. This will prevent threats to criminal proceedings investigated by NABU and SAPO, according to the statement.
As RBC-Ukraine writes, in fact, the new bill abolishes the curtailment of the powers of anti-corruption bodies. It also contains a number of innovations.
Thus, the president proposes to return the deputy prosecutor general — the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (for SAPO prosecutors) — to the definition of the head of the prosecutor’s office.
Also, the prosecutor general will now be unable to request materials from pre-trial investigations from NABU’s detective and internal control departments.
The Prosecutor General is prohibited from assigning a pre-trial investigation of a case under the jurisdiction of NABU to another body. Except in cases where there are objective circumstances that preclude the possibility of an investigation by the bureau under martial law, in which case the decision is made by the head of the SAP or the Prosecutor General personally.
The NABU detective will be obliged to carry out only the instructions and orders of the SAPO prosecutor, which are provided in writing.