Court ordered Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate Bezuhla’s actions during "Wagnergate," - lawyer
The Pecherskyi District Court ordered the Prosecutor General's Office to launch a pre-trial investigation into Roman Chervinskyi's statement regarding MP Mariana Bezuhla.
This was reported by lawyer Andrii Yosypov, according to Censor.NET.
Details
Investigative judge Novak of the Pecherskyi District Court upheld the complaint against the inaction of the Office of the Prosecutor General and ordered OPG officials to enter the information into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations and launch a pre-trial investigation.
The Office of the Prosecutor General must investigate Bezuhla's criminal offense under Part 2 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (disclosure of state secrets, which caused serious consequences).
The essence of the complaint
On 10 and 13 September 2021, Roman Chervinskyi and other officers gave testimony to the Verkhovna Rada's Temporary Investigation Commission on the Wagnergate case.
"Before the interrogation began, all members of the Temporary Investigation Commission were officially warned that this information was a state secret. Despite the secrecy regime, the head of the Temporary Investigation Commission, Mariana Bezuhla, gave an interview to the media on the same day, revealing details of the operation and information about the participation of specific individuals (military personnel) in it.
The disclosure of the names of the intelligence participants effectively "highlighted" targets for the Russian special services. The FSB officially recognised the Wagnergate operation as an act of terrorism. This posed a direct threat to the lives of the officers, as the aggressor state systematically eliminates individuals it considers "terrorists" (the murders of Voronych, Shapoval, Kharaberiush and the assassination attempts on Budanov confirm this)," the defence lawyer explained.
Wagnergate
As a reminder, on the night of 29 July 2020, 32 foreign militants were detained in Belarus. According to the Belarusian state news agency BELTA, they are Russians from Wagner's PMC. They arrived in Belarus to destabilise the situation ahead of the presidential elections. Some of the detainees are listed in the Myrotvorets database as having fought in Donbas and Syria. Russian terrorist Zakhar Prilepin confirmed that among the mercenaries caught in Belarus are former fighters from his "battalion".
On 14 August, Belarus handed over 32 Wagner PMC militants to the Russian Federation, ignoring Ukraine's request for their extradition.
Yurii Butusov, editor-in-chief of Censor.NET , said that Ukraine had actually planned to detain Wagner PMC militants in Belarus, but the special operation failed.
On 19 May, the Rada refused to create a Temporary Investigation Commission (TIC) on the Wagner case. Instead, the Rada created a TIC to investigate possible crimes committed by government officials.
On 24 June, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the preparation of a special operation against the "Wagnerites" and compared it to the hijacking of a Ryanair plane in Minsk. Zelenskyy also stated that the special operation against the "Wagnerites" was the idea of other countries and that Ukraine was drawn into this issue as much as possible. In addition, the president said that he personally conveyed information about the Wagner Group to Lukashenko: I called and warned him.
The Verkhovna Rada's temporary investigative commission on the investigation of possible illegal actions by representatives of state authorities and other persons against the sovereignty of Ukraine began its work on 6 July. At an organisational meeting, a decision was made to invite the fifth president of Ukraine, People's Deputy of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko, to the meeting on the "Wagnerites case". The commission also decided to send requests to the Security Service of Ukraine, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence, and the Office of the Prosecutor General with a request to answer, in particular, the question of whether an operation to detain the "Wagnerites" was being prepared, as well as to determine their representatives who will join the work of the Temporary Investigation Commission. According to the approved work plan, the TIC will deal with the Wagnerites issue in July-August.
