Prosecutor Asks Court To Place SBU General Duka In Custody With UAH 100M Bail Option

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) A prosecutor told this to reporters, when asked about the preventive measure he intended to seek for Duka in court, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We have requested detention with the alternative of bail set at UAH 100 million," he said.

The prosecutor also described the circumstances of Duka's detention.

"At around 05:30, NABU detectives arrived at this person's place of residence. They had a warrant issued by an investigating judge and attempted to conduct a search. The suspect and his personal security detail, as they call it – whether it was 'Alpha' or not – but armed men chambered rounds and pointed laser sights at NABU officers, thereby obstructing the execution of the search warrant," the prosecutor said.

According to him, all this went on for about two hours.

"During that time, the individual was destroying evidence, including his mobile phones, by smashing them with an axe. This was subsequently discovered and established. We intended to cite this, among other things, as evidence of the relevant risks," he said.

The prosecutor described this conduct as "blatantly brazen and aimed solely at obstructing NABU's lawful actions carried out under an investigating judge's warrant."

"They were merely hiding behind what they claimed was some order on the implementation of security measures. But, again, this must also be assessed, because no order on security measures states that it takes precedence over an investigating judge's ruling," the prosecutor said.

He added that, following a report by NABU, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had opened criminal proceedings under Article 345 of the Criminal Code – resistance to law enforcement officers in the performance of their official duties.

"As far as I know, the pretrial investigation is ongoing. All the circumstances surrounding this resistance will be established," the prosecutor said.

He also said that another person implicated in the case, police officer Oleksandr Demianchuk, had already been remanded in custody without bail being set.

In addition, the prosecutor filed a motion to recuse the judge. The motion is now to be assigned through the automated case distribution system and considered by another judge.

Earlier, Oleksandr Abakumov, head of a unit of detectives at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), said that during investigative actions at the residence of Serhii Duka, First Deputy Head of the SBU's Department for the Protection of National Statehood, the general had threatened NABU detectives with a pistol and smashed equipment with a hammer.

Read also: UAH 15M bail posted for senior National Police official Tsenov in Carthage case

Early on November 4, NABU announced that it and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), as part of Operation Carthage, had exposed a scheme involving bribes paid to senior law enforcement officials.

Investigators established that current senior officials of the SBU, the National Police and the Prosecutor General's Office, as well as representatives of the criminal underworld, were involved in the scheme.

The National Police said that officers against whom NABU had taken procedural action had been suspended from their duties pending an internal investigation. SBU Head Oleksandr Poklad also dismissed two senior agency officials who had become subjects of the investigation.

On November 5, the HACC ordered Volodymyr Tsenov, First Deputy Head of the National Police's Strategic Investigations Department, to be held in custody, with the option of posting UAH 15 million in bail.

The court also ordered another person implicated in the Carthage case, Vitalii Rybalka, to be held in custody without setting a bail option.

Photo: Ukrainska Pravda

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