In court, the Hrynkevychs’ case is falling apart

In court, the Hrynkevychs’ case is falling apart

Yesterday, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Office of the Prosecutor General announced a new suspicion in the so-called "Hrynkevychs’ case," which was handed to a Ministry of Defence official allegedly for reducing penalty sanctions for military uniform supplier companies.

The lawyer in the Hrynkevychs’ case, Oleksandr Melnikov, commented on the new allegations by the investigation, explaining the reasons for their occurrence.

"Let’s start with the fact that the proceedings regarding the supply of allegedly substandard uniforms to the Ministry of Defence have been investigated by the SBI for almost a year. And during this time, the investigation had no questions about the delivery deadlines in the contracts. Now we have reached the stage where almost all of the legal maximum periods for holding individuals in custody have been exhausted, and the investigation was forced to conclude. The defence began to review the case materials and saw that the case had no judicial prospects. It is evident that its public examination in the judicial process would turn into a mockery of the prosecution. It was precisely at this time that a new suspicion appeared, allegedly for ’reducing the fines for the Hrynkevychs.’ It is hard to call this a coincidence, especially considering the fact that the case materials lack evidence of the Hrynkevychs’ guilt and evidence that they caused any damage to the state. In this context, I will briefly remind you that no advance payments were made to the form-supplying companies, and due to the position of the SBI, over 100,000 sets of new and quality uniforms for the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not been delivered to military units," Melnikov stated.

He further explained that in highlighting the ’reasons for the new suspicion against the Ministry of Defence official,’ the SBI again resorted to manipulating facts.

"Firstly, no official of the Ministry of Defence ’canceled or reduced any penalty sanctions for anyone,’ as stated in the messages from the SBI and the Office of the Prosecutor General. It exclusively concerned the decision of the Customer represented by the Ministry of Defence to extend the validity period of supply contracts for objective reasons recognized by the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Until now, these contracts have not been canceled or terminated by anyone. They logically completed their term within the defined periods. Secondly, these contracts were concluded in such a way that the Ministry of Defence (within the legal processes) repeatedly defended its interests based on these agreements. And thirdly, and most importantly, we see how with this new suspicion, the SBI and prosecutors are trying to deliberately and artificially criminalize purely economic relationships," added Oleksandr Melnikov. According to him, the defence of the Hrynkevychs has not faced such manifestations of abuse by pre-trial investigation bodies for the first time.

"Initially, the SBI accused the Hrynkevychs of embezzling about 1 billion UAH, then it turned out that they purchased the uniforms with their own funds. After this, the SBI changed its version and began to make claims about the quality of the goods. Subsequently, the investigators deprived the defence of any opportunity to carry out an independent examination of the form’s quality, literally blocking access to clothing samples. Now, when the case is almost in court, and the facts of falsification of the proceedings and the abuses of the investigation will become public, the SBI has realized the inevitability of the case’s collapse. Accordingly, hastily, after a year of investigation, they resorted to a new round of falsification and pressure in the form of accusations against representatives of the Ministry of Defence. The goal here is simple - to somehow continue the existence of the distorted reality they have created," summed up Melnikov.