NABU illegally gathered compromising material to discredit SAPO, PGO – media (Documents)

The purported correspondence between subordinates of Artem Sytnyk, Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), published by the media testifies to attempts of discrediting other security officials who investigated NABU’s illegal activities.

The copies of corresponding documents were published by the Obozrevatel media outlet. According to journalists, they confirm that NABU detectives at the direction of their superiors were engaged in gathering incriminating evidence and compiling dossiers on officials of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) of Ukraine and Head of the Specialized Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) Nazar Kholodnytsky, as reported by Ukrainian News.

“Following high-profile scandals with illegal wiretapping of SAPO by NABU agents, Artem Sytnyk’s subordinates continued to ‘dig dirt’ on Kholodnytsky, trying to find a pretext for discrediting him. This is evidenced by an internal document drafted by NABU agents for Sytnyk’s First Deputy Gizo Uglava, where NABU detectives reported on their assignment – to come up with a pretext for discrediting the SAPO chief,” the media outlet reported.

Such pretext could be Kholodnytsky’s contact with Andriy Bohdan, but new authorities came in 2019, and Bohdan was appointed Head of the President’s Office – so this version became “inconvenient” for Sytnyk, who had already started feeling reasonably concerned about his chair, Obozrevatel wrote.

“In addition to squabbles with SAPO, NABU actively fought with the PGO, namely, Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk and the Department of Investigation of Critical Cases in Economics. On August 12, 2016, officers of this PGO’s department detained two employees of the NABU’s operational-technical unit as the latter were conducting an ‘undercover technical operation’ – surveillance of PGO’s officials,” journalists said.

According to the media outlet, the following documents are ‘a ‘black list’ of PGO officials with their photographs and a “list of troubles” the prosecutors had caused to ‘NABU spies’.” The list, journalists say, was received by Gizo Uglava from his subordinates.

“NABU has already been accused of illegally wiretapping some 140 persons after allegedly receiving a court warrant to wiretap 18 persons. According to media reports, previously published correspondence also indicates that NABU wiretapped, compiled dossiers, and sent incriminating material to foreign actors. Mainly politicians, businessmen and law enforcers were allegedly targeted in such illegal actions,” the report reads.