Prosecutor General’s Office opens proceedings against Bezuhla based on Chervinskyi’s statement. DOCUMENT
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has entered information into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations (URPTI) based on a statement by Roman Chervinskyi regarding the actions of MP Mariana Bezuhla.
Censor.NET was informed of this by Chervinskyi’s lawyer, Andrii Yosypov.
According to him, proceedings were opened under Part 2 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — disclosure of state secrets resulting in grave consequences.
This concerns events surrounding the work of the Temporary Investigative Commission (TIC) on Wagnergate, when, despite the commission’s meeting being held behind closed doors, details of the operation and data on its participants were publicly disclosed by Bezuhla.
Yosypov noted that, under the rules of investigative jurisdiction, crimes предусмотрені гэтай article fall within the competence of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), while crimes committed by MPs are investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
"Roman Chervinskyi is the victim in these proceedings. Our next step will be to demand that the investigator officially recognize this status, which will give us the full range of procedural tools," the lawyer emphasized.
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.
