Statement regarding the invasion of the NABU’s office by provocateurs
On July 17, 2018, between 11 and 12 a.m. during unauthorized meeting at the NABU entrance, the group of the so-called titushki (sturdy young men who join meetings for payment) broke into the building of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). Initially, these persons went to the Public Reception Office with the purpose of submitting the appeal. There they disabled the security camera, broke down the doors and the metal blinds, which separated the public space from the restricted area, and entered the hall of the NABU building.The police officers who were onsite did not interfere with their actions until the offenders started destroying furniture and threatening NABU’s employees. Only after that officers of the National Police officers (entity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (MIA) appeared and politely asked offenders to leave.
The NABU does not exclude that the abovementioned events were a part of a well-planned provocation organized by the representatives of certain political party. This is confirmed by the connections between one of the organizers of the protest with the Member of Parliament of Ukraine (MP) Yevhen Deidei and the close relative of the Minister of Internal Affairs whose actions have been investigated by the NABU detectives. Ineffective reaction of the Police against offenders also convey the same suggestions.
As a result, none of the offenders was detained, that would be scarcely possible if such events occurred, for example, in the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In addition, the NABU has the evidence that the participants of the protest, including representatives of socially disadvantaged groups, were transferred to the NABU building by buses and participated in the meeting in exchange for certain reward.
It should be noted that last week, the SAPO prosecutor decided to terminate the investigation against the two suspects of the so-called backpacks’ case – the ex-Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and a close relative of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
NABU strongly disagrees the abovementioned decision and believes that the NABU Detectives have obtained enough evidence to send the indictment against the above-mentioned person in the embezzlement of 14.5 million UAH to court.
NABU treats the incident on July 17, 2018 as a planned attack on the Bureau for its commitment to investigating corruption of high rank officials.
The NABU is under no illusion that the National Police will properly investigate the invasion to the Bureau’s office. Therefore, the Bureau has published some pieces of video from security cameras that show the unlawful behavior of protesters.