Official statement by NABU and SAPO regarding draft law No. 12414

Parliament is preparing for the second reading of draft law No. 12414, which includes last-minute amendments that would de facto dismantle the independence of NABU and SAPO, subordinating their activities to the Prosecutor General.

In particular, the draft law provides that:

• the Prosecutor General will have access to all NABU cases or may grant such access to any other prosecutor;
• the Prosecutor General will have the authority to issue binding written instructions to NABU detectives and, in case of non-compliance, may transfer the case to other bodies;
• the Prosecutor General will be able to close investigations at the request of the defence;
• the Prosecutor General will unilaterally resolve jurisdictional disputes;
• the Prosecutor General will personally sign notices of suspicion for high-ranking officials;
• the Head of SAPO will lose the right to be part of the group of prosecutors — this will be decided solely by the Prosecutor General.

If adopted, this draft law would reduce the Head of SAPO to a nominal role, while NABU would lose its independence and effectively become a subdivision of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

This would dismantle the anti-corruption infrastructure that Ukraine has been building since 2015.

We call on members of Parliament to refrain from supporting legislation that would effectively destroy the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption system.