Today, Ukraine’s Parliament is set to consider Draft Law No. 12414 in its second reading, now with last-minute amendments that, according to official statements by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), would effectively eliminate their independence and subordinate their work to the Prosecutor General.
The key amendments would allow the Prosecutor General to:
- Access any NABU case, or grant such access to any other prosecutor;
- Issue binding written orders to NABU detectives and, if disobeyed, change jurisdiction by transferring the case to another law enforcement agency;
- Close investigations upon the request of the defense;
- Unilaterally resolve jurisdictional disputes;
- Personally sign notices of suspicion against top officials;
- Remove the SAP head from investigative teams, with the Prosecutor General becoming the sole authority in such decisions.
NABU warns that these changes would render the SAP director a purely symbolic figure and reduce NABU to a subordinate unit of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“Ukraine’s anti-corruption infrastructure, built since 2015, would be dismantled,” NABU and SAP stated.
“We urge lawmakers to refrain from supporting legislation that would destroy the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system.”
