NABU believes that the decision of the Constitutional Court, which recognized certain provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine" as not in line with the Constitution of Ukraine, is another attempt to block the fight against political corruption and stop cleansing of the judiciary in the state.
It is the third decision of the CCU regarding the National Bureau. In 2019, the judges declared unconstitutional the article on illegal enrichment and deprived NABU of the authority to invalidate illegal agreements concluded by state-owned enterprises in court. Each of these decisions, by a strange coincidence, appeared in response to the effectiveness of the NABU's work in each of the mentioned areas.
According to the latest decision of the CCU, within the next three months the Law of Ukraine "On NABU" should be amended to regulate the legal aspects of the NABU functioning, which currently, in the opinion of the CCU judges, do not comply with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The intentions of some political forces, primarily related to the suspects in the NABU investigations, to revise the Law in terms of depriving the National Bureau of institutional independence are a source of concern.
The NABU’s independence is the basic that determines the ability of the institution to withstand pressure during the investigation of the corruption crimes committed by top-officials and to bring them to justice.
For five years, NABU and SAPO have brought to justice more than 800 persons, including members of parliament, ministers, their deputies, and senior officials. About 500 persons are awaiting the decisions of the High Anti-Corruption Court. In recent months, the country has witnessed court verdicts as of the persons found guilty of top-corruption and sentenced to imprisonment. Moreover, the process is only gaining momentum.
Therefore, we urge members of parliament to preserve the institutional independence of the National Bureau as a guarantee of the effectiveness of the fight against corruption. In turn, NABU is ready to join the process of preparing and discussing of the amendments to the Law "On NABU".
It should be noted, that the National Bureau is fully functioning.