A controversial prosecutor who prosecuted a EuroMaidan activist for taking part in a protest in 2013 has been made the head of Ukraine’s new crime investigation agency.
Roman Truba, a former prosecutor, was appointed as chief of the State Investigation Bureau late on Nov. 16.
The Prosecutor General’s Office is expected to transfer all of its remaining investigative functions to the State Investigative Bureau.
Olga Varchenko, a top official at the high-profile economic cases department at the Prosecutor General’s Office, and Oleksandr Buryak, a former deputy chief prosecutor of Kyiv, were appointed as deputies of Truba.
Varchenko and her department have been accused of having political links to lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky, a top ally of President Petro Poroshenko. Varchenko has admitted being acquainted with Hranovsky but the lawmaker has denied influencing the department.
Oleksandr Lemenov, an anti-corruption expert of the Reanimation Package of Reforms, and other activists say that the competition for the State Investigation Bureau was rigged in favor of government loyalists. The authorities deny the accusations.
Oleksiy Gorashchenkov, the first deputy chief of the Presidential Administration’s department for strategic planning and operating support, had previously been deeemed to be the frontrunner to head the bureau, Lemenov said. But he failed to get the job because of a scandal that erupted when Hanna Solomatina, a top official of the National Agency for Preventing Corruption, said Gorashchenkov had told her that electronic asset declaration checks and their results had to be approved by the Presidential Administration.
Gorashchenkov denied influencing the NAPC, but refused to say whether he had met her.
Truba’s appointment is the result of a compromise between the Poroshenko’s Bloc and the People’s Front party, which controlled the selection process, Lemenov told the Kyiv Post.
Truba is a protégé of the People’s Front, but he will be controlled by his powerful deputies Varchenko and Buryak, who are loyal to Poroshenko, Lemenov said.
Truba and his deputies have also been criticized because they represent old prosecutorial cadres, not new blood.
Until April 2015, Truba had held various prosecutorial jobs, including head of the high-profile investigations department at the Prosecutor General’s Office. Later he worked as a top executive of Sektor Prava, a law firm.
He reportedly used to be a protégé of former President Viktor Yanukovych’s Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, and subsequently a protégé of Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema.
In June 2013 Truba spoke of Pshonka in a eulogic manner.
“Right now before my eyes, as if it were yesterday, I see my meeting with Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and later my presentation (to employees) by the regional prosecutor, Vitaly Kovbasyuk,” he told the Voice of the People newspaper.
In December 2013 Truba was the prosecutor in a criminal case against EuroMaidan activist Adnriy Shevtsiv, charging him with blocking traffic during a protest.
