Ukraine’s PG Riaboshapka: ‘Even Floods May Pose a Threat to Maidan Case’

05 February 2020 20:52

Prosecutor General Rouslan Riaboshapka said that even a “flood poses a threat” to the Maidan case, in response to the question ofwhether the appointment of Viktor Yanukovych’s ex—lawyer Oleksandr Babikov as the first deputy head of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) jeopardized the case.

Prosecutor General Rouslan Riaboshapka said that even a “flood poses a threat” to the Maidan case, in response to the question of whether the appointment of Viktor Yanukovych’s ex-lawyer as the first deputy head of the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) jeopardized the case.

Riaboshapka said this after a meeting of the parliamentary committee on law enforcement, hromadske correspondent reports.

It emerged on January 20 that Oleksandr Babikov, who had worked for Yanukovych, officially landed the job of the deputy director of the SBI.

Information about the possible appointment of Babikov appeared earlier. Soon after, the public organization "Families of Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred" opposed the appointment of Babikov because of a conflict of interest.

At the same time, in her earlier address, acting director of SBI Iryna Venediktova assured that there would be no conflict of interest, and criticism of Babikov's appointment was “manipulation”.

Riaboshapka himself evaded the question of whether there was a conflict of interest in Babikov’s appointment at the agency currently investigating the Maidan case.

“We should ask the person that appointed Babikov about the appointment of Babikov. The head appointed Babikov, and according to the law on corruption prevention, it is the head who determines whether there is a conflict of interest or not. Therefore [she] took some measures to avoid a conflict of interest,” PG said.

Riaboshapka added that "as far as he heard", Venediktova had bumped Babikov from cases related to the Maidan events.

“It depends on how the SBI investigators or our prosecutors behave. The case can even be endangered by floods, there might be a flood and cases might sink to the bottom,” he summarized.

All the crimes committed during the Revolution of Dignity are conditionally combined into one big “Maidan case”, which comprises 89 criminal proceedings. Murder of 97 people (84 protesters and 13 law enforcers) are being investigated among other events.