The High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) judges refused to postpone the hearing at the request of a lawyer, a relative of the fallen hero, who asked for a postponement due to the funeral of her nephew. The reason was their haste to approve a plea deal with the investigation of former Ukreximbank board member Oleksandr Ihnatenko and release him from criminal liability.
This is said in the statement of the Sorry to be Alive NGO. The appeal states that the NGO was approached by lawyer Olesia Basarhina, who reported that on October 15, 2023, her nephew, Vitalii Kozei, senior soldier of the 68th Separate Brigade named after Oleksa Dovbush, was killed during a combat mission near Kupiansk. The hero's body was delivered to his parents on October 29.
"On October 31, the HACC scheduled a court hearing in the Ukrgasbank case, specifically the consideration of the plea deal of Oleksandr Ihnatenko, former Deputy Chairman of the board of Ukrgasbank and Ukreximbank, where the lawyer represented one of the parties. On October 30, Olesia Basarhina sent a petition to the HACC that she would not be able to attend the hearing due to the organization of the funeral and family support. But the HACC judges recognized the funeral of the fallen hero as a disrespectful reason for the lawyer's failure to appear in court and held a hearing without the lawyer," says the statement.
Representatives of the Sorry to be Alive NGO report that in response to their appeal to the HACC, they received a "cynical bureaucratic response" about why the burial of a fallen Ukrainian soldier was not a valid reason for them to postpone the hearing. The statement says that HACC judges obviously consider themselves a special, higher caste with their own system of values. It seems that the scheme was to release Oleksandr Ihnatenko, a former board member of Ukrgasbank and Ukreximbank, from liability in this case as soon as possible. He is probably involved not only in the Ukrgasbank case, but also in billions of dollars in arms purchases abroad, most of which never reached the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The veterans recall that they raised the issue of the activities of Oleksandr Ihnatenko, a former manager of Ukreximbank who was responsible for checking dubious counterparties at the state-owned bank. According to the SASU, Ukreximbank's receivables on foreign payments reached UAH 36 billion, probably due to his negligence. Nevertheless, the HACC released Ihnatenko from criminal liability. "Why does the body responsible for punishing corrupt officials, including those who do not hesitate to steal from their own army during the war, let these corrupt officials go free? Today, judicial arbitrariness is driven by impunity, and people like Ihnatenko are protected by money earned on blood," the Sorry to be Alive NGO says in a statement.
According to NGO veterans, this case is yet another indication that judicial reform in Ukraine has not taken place, and judges who previously defended Yanukovych, his henchmen, and Russian agents continue to work in their positions or have been transferred to the HACC. They summarize that the history of Ukraine has repeatedly shown that impunity and omnipotence of corrupt officials sooner or later ends, and legal punishment is inevitable. It will be demanded by hundreds of thousands of veterans who will return from the front with victory.