Statement concerning the inadmissibility of persecution Vitaly Kasko

Press-releases | 12 April 2016

We, the representatives of civil society demand to stop persecution of ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Mr. Kasko, during his tenure as Deputy Prosecutor General, initiated criminal proceeding in the case of the so called “diamond prosecutors”, in which Oleksandr Korniets, a person close to ex-Prosecutor General, was one of the persons of interest. Right after Vitaliy Kasko resigned from the Prosecutor General’s Office, criminal proceeding was registered against him on the fact of fraud

Since that time this case has been an instrument for personal pressure and revenge to Mr. Kasko for his numerous public statements on covering up corruption and combating reforms of prosecution by Mr. Shokin.

On 22 March 2016 Mr. Kasko’s apartment was seized. And a person who appealed the court to seize the property was Mr. Shokin even though there are no provisions in the Criminal Procedure Code demanding that.

Late at night on Sunday, April 10th, right on the street in the center of Kyiv several officers of special forces and of the Prosecutor General’s Office, among whom was the head of the Department for Investigation of Criminal Proceedings in the Sphere of Civil Service and Property of the Prosecutor General’s Office Mr. Dmytro Stus, tried to serve Vitaliy Kasko with “summons of suspicion”.

Besides the outright theatrelized character of actions, when the prosecutor’s office did not find time to conduct relevant procedural action during the working hours, prosecution officers committed a number of other serious violations of constitutional rights of V.Kasko and of the laws of Ukraine.

Among them were:

  • Violation of the right to private property guaranteed by article 41 of the Constitution.

Damage was inflicted to the car, in particular, the door from the driver’s side was covered with the unknown substance, obviously by law enforcement officers with the aim to prevent Mr, Kasko from getting into his car.

  • Violation of the right to personal privacy guaranteed by article 32 of the Constitution.

The only way to track Mr. Kasko’s location was to put a tail on him. Obviously, this unlawful activity was carried out without proper authorization of the court. Therefore, such actions shall be qualified pursuant to article 186 of the Criminal Code as violation of personal privacy.

  • Violation of the right to protection in part of prohibition of carrying out investigative actions at night time (from 22:00 to 6:00) stipulated by part 4 of article 223 of the CPC.

Serving “summons of suspicion” is not the procedure demanding urgent actions. Such behavior of prosecutors had the only reason – to put psychological pressure on Mr. Kasko.  Such things were done to suspects during Stalin’s repressions when searches, arrests and interrogations were conducted at night time.

  • Violation of guarantees for protection of attorneys which status Mr. Kasko has. According to item 1 of part 1 of article 481 of the CPC only the Prosecutor General, his deputy or the prosecutor of the city of Kyiv have the right to serve an attorney with “summons of suspicion”. Any of the above mentioned prosecutors were present at the place of that night’s events.

Taking into account the above mentioned facts, it becomes clear that Vitaliy Kasko is being put under pressure to intimidate all those who aims to reveal corruption among prosecutors in the future.

Therefore, we demand from authorities and officials responsible for relevant decisions to:

  • Stop politically motivated persecution and pressuring of the ex-Deputy Prosecutor General Mr. Vitaliy Kasko;
  • Initiate criminal proceedings on the facts of actions committed by officers of the Prosecutor General’s Office, described above in this statement, provide for their effective investigation and bring those guilty of them to responsibility;
  • Prevent similar persecution and pressure on investigators and prosecutors involved in investigation of the case of “diamond prosecutors”.

Reanimation Package of Reforms
Transparency International Ukraine
Anticorruption Action Center
Centre of Policy and Legal Reform
Centre for political studies and analysis “Eydos”
CrimeasSOS
Media Law Institute
Institute of Mass Information
NGO Centre UA
Human Rights Information Center
Euromaidan Civic Sector
Association of Human Rights Monitors on Law Enforcement
Ukrainian Independent Centre for Political Studies
Advocacy center “Life”
Foundation “Open Dialog”
Foundation of Regional Initiatives
Centre for Economical Strategy
Centre of Local Self Governance
Political Studies Association
Committee for restoration of historical justice
Agency for Development of Civil Society
Institute for Social and Economic Transformation
NGO “Initiative Е+”
NGO “Kolovorot”
Civic movement “Chesno”
People’s Control of Kirovohrad Region
Elina Shyshkina, MP of Ukraine of the 6th convocation
Oleksandr Yabchanka, Manager of working group on health reform in RPR
Mykhailo Zhernakov, Leading expert on Judiciary, Board member of Reanimation Package of Reforms
Nataliya Sokolenko, journalist

Source: Reanimation Package of Reforms

Share