Pechersk lawlessness, or Who will stop the brazen prosecutors and judges?

Pechersk lawlessness, or Who will stop the brazen prosecutors and judges?

Today (September 7), the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv was picketed by representatives of public organizations. They demanded adherence to laws and fair justice by the local "guardians of order and legality."

According to the leader of the NGO "Committee for Combating Corruption in Government Bodies," Viktor Sayko, despite numerous statements by the country’s leaders and, in particular, the General Prosecutor’s Office about cleansing the government and the anti-corruption program, nothing has changed in the Pechersk district of the capital since the times of Yanukovych. Prosecutors are engaged in fabricating criminal cases. They were caught in a gangster raid, as happened with the robbery of the "Graff" jewelry store in Kyiv.

Representatives of the Pechersk Prosecutor’s Office and the police became scandalously highlighted when they were caught stashing stolen jewelry in their underwear. Especially "famous" in this was senior prosecutor P. Kozlov, known for lawlessly seizing property from local entrepreneurs, legal entities, and even state property. Kozlov was also involved in concealing crimes of gangster groups, such as the "Loleks - Boleks."

His brazenness and impunity have long attracted the attention of the press and public activists. However, Kozlov and his accomplices from the Pechersk Prosecutor’s Office continued their prosecutorial lawlessness. Only the surveillance camera recordings, which captured the mentioned jewelry store robbery, where prosecutors and policemen were seen stashing money and jewelry in their underwear, finally prompted law enforcement representatives to arrest the overreaching prosecutor. Especially since the surveillance recordings were broadcasted nationwide.

But today, P. Kozlov is free. They say he denies himself nothing, lives on a grand scale, and, heaven forbid, might "ride again on a white horse" into his Pechersk Prosecutor’s Office. A greater mockery of law and justice cannot be imagined. Kozlov was released straight from the courtroom on bail of 80,000 hryvnias (instead of the 6 million initially suggested) by Judge V. Karaban of the same Pechersk court.

It is this judge, as well as the prosecutor of the Pechersk district of Kyiv, B. Bezkorovaynyi, the deputy prosecutor of the same district O. Vyhirynska, and judge V. Karaban, that the lawyers of entrepreneurs who suffered from "Kozlovshchyna" accuse of intentional abuse of official powers, issuing knowingly unlawful decisions, which led to severe consequences. In their appeal to the heads of the General Prosecutor’s Office, the defenders call for a full, unbiased, and objective investigation of the actions of the prosecutors of the Pechersk Prosecutor’s Office, B. Bezkorovaynyi, O. Vyhirynska, as well as judge V. Karaban of the Pechersk District Court, following which it is planned to hold these "law enforcers" accountable.

Taras Hrab,

special for Antikor