The Parliamentary Committee Supports Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code: NABU and SAPO May Become Dependent on the Prosecutor General

The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement supported amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), according to which the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) could become dependent on the decisions of the Prosecutor General. Currently, these are independent anti-corruption institutions.

Ukrainska Pravda was informed by the law enforcement committee, and committee proposals to draft law No. 12414 became available.

Details: At the committee meeting on the morning of July 22, members of parliament recommended that the parliament adopt draft law No. 12414 in the second reading, which provides for amendments to the CPC with the committee’s proposals.

Among other things, the parliamentarians propose to adopt the document with changes that would allow the Prosecutor General to:

• delegate the powers of the SAPO prosecutor to other prosecutors;

• request materials from any cases and reassign them to other prosecutors;

• issue written instructions to NABU that are mandatory to follow;

• reassign NABU’s criminal proceedings to other pre-trial investigation bodies.

The committee chair Serhiy Ionushas, his first deputy Andriy Osadchuk, and the head of the specialized subcommittee on criminal legislation and crime prevention, Oleksandr Bakumov, were not present at the meeting.

Most committee members learned about the meeting and the decisions made there only after the fact.

The Verkhovna Rada may consider this bill in the second reading at the session on July 22, 2025. If the document is adopted, the Prosecutor General will effectively become the direct supervisor of SAPO prosecutors.

To remind, on July 21, officers from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) conducted approximately 80 searches targeting 19 employees of the National Investigation Bureau across various regions of Ukraine.

The law enforcement officers did not have court warrants for the searches but do not consider this a violation of the law, arguing that obtaining such warrants could have “caused information leaks” and “hindered special operations.”

NABU detectives are accused of treason, illegal trade with Russia, and corruption benefiting oligarchs. At the same time, the State Bureau of Investigations has intensified activities with materials related to a multi-year-old traffic accident involving NABU employees.

Representatives of the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office are also checking the state security measures regarding classified information in the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP). The inspection concerns NABU employees who have access to state secrets and conduct covert investigative actions.

EMPR