​New prosecutor general announces reshuffle, pledges progress on high-profile cases

Shokin, who was appointed prosecutor general last week, faces pressure to make progress on corruption and murder cases against Yanukovych and his entourage.

His predecessor, Vitaly Yarema, is widely believed to have failed in this task.

“The first thing I did during my first week is to reorganize the Prosecutor General’s Office,” Shokin said at a news briefing on Feb. 16, announcing a reshuffle aimed at replacing Yanukovych-era prosecutors with reform-minded officials who will deliver justice.

Shokin said that he had fired Volodymyr Orlov, a deputy head of the department for oversight over agencies fighting organized crime and corruption.

Orlov was the head of the Sumy and Luhansk customs offices under Yanukovych.

Serhiy Leshchenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, has argued that Orlov must be fired under the lustration law, while Yarema claimed that he was not subject to it.

Shokin also dismissed Nikolai Frantovsky, the chief prosecutor of Donetsk Oblast who was also reportedly subject to the lustration law, and Svyatoslav Laganyak, head of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s main investigative department. Laganyak was in charge of investigating the murder of more than 100 EuroMaidan Revolution protesters and corruption cases against Yanukovych allies under Yarema.

As part of the reshuffle, David Sakvarelidze and Volodymyr Guzyr were appointed as Shokin’s deputies. Sakvarelidze, who was Georgia’s first deputy prosecutor general in 2009-2012 under President Mikheil Saakashvili’s reformist government, will be in charge of reforming the office, human resources and European integration.

Shokin also said that he had set up a department, headed by Deputy Prosecutor General Kasko, responsible for communication with the Verkhovna Rada.

The restructuring and appointments come amid Shokin’s efforts to make progress on high-profile cases.

He said that the EuroMaidan murders case and corruption cases against Yanukovych’s allies would be soon submitted to courts. Sakvarelidze and Kasko will try to persuade European officials not to unfreeze Yanukovych associates’ assets in the E.U., Shokin said.

Commenting on the investigation of the murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000, Shokin said he would be personally responsible for it.

“(The Prosecutor General’s Office) will find not only the hit men but also the organizers,” he said.

Shokin was initially responsible for the Gongadze case in 2003-2005, when he was a deputy prosecutor general, and has been praised for making progress in the investigation. He said, however, that he had subsequently been prevented from completing the investigation.

Four Interior Ministry employees, including former police Lt. Gen. Oleksiy Pukach, were sentenced to prison terms for the murder. Allegations that former President Leonid Kuchma was behind the murder led to large-scale protests in 2000-2001.

Shokin also promised to complete the kidnapping and torture case against Gennday Kernes, mayor of Kharkiv, and an ally of Yanukovych.

Another Yanukovych associate, Oleksandr Yefremov, was arrested on Feb. 14 on suspicion of abuse of power and forgery. Yefremov was previously the head of the Party of Regions’ faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

Yefremov is accused of putting pressure on state coal company Luganskugol to make it conclude contracts with service providers controlled by Yefremov at excessive prices.

Critics have claimed that the prosecutor’s office lacks a strong case against Yefremov, arguing that otherwise he would have been charged with something more substantial and that he would have been arrested earlier in that case. Yefremov has been often accused of financing and organizing separatist unrest in Luhansk Oblast.

Shokin said, however, that his office could bring additional charges against Yefremov.

On Feb. 13, the Prosecutor General’s Office also submitted to a court the abuse of power case against Oleksandr Popov, who headed Kyiv’s city government under Yanukovych. He is accused of complicity in the brutal crackdown on EuroMaidan protesters on Nov. 30, 2013.

The developments come as Shokin is dealing a blow to controversial judges linked to the Yanukovych regime.

Kyiv prosecutors are currently searching the Kyiv District’s Administrative Court, Alyona Yakhno, a spokeswoman for the Kyiv prosecutor’s office, wrote on Facebook on Feb. 16. The court’s judges are suspected of living luxuriously abroad while pretending to issue verdicts in Kyiv, she said.

Last week Shokin also asked the Verkhovna Rada to authorize the arrest of three judges of Kyiv’s Pechersky Court, formerly a major bulwark of the Yanukovych regime accused of routinely fabricating political cases. The judges are suspected of unlawfully prosecuting EuroMaidan demonstrators.