Lawyer Olha Prosyanyuk, who represents NABU First Deputy Director Gizo Uglava in court, responded to the information about the decision of the NABU disciplinary commission and made public the defence’s position. She wrote about this on Facebook, according to Komersant ukrainskyi
As reported by , the NABU disciplinary commission considered an internal investigation into Uglava’s pressure on his subordinates and concluded that he was guilty. According to the lawyer, the commission recommended a reprimand or dismissal.
“Today, we learned from the media that the NABU Disciplinary Commission has decided to recommend a disciplinary sanction in the form of a reprimand or dismissal against Gizo Uglava,”
– she wrote.
Uglava’s defence categorically disagrees with this recommendation, citing the following arguments (verbatim):
- There is no fact of disciplinary offence. The phrase “to go out on his own”, which is imputed to the Client, is not a threat or pressure, which is confirmed by the conclusion of the linguistic study and the testimony of 17 witnesses.
- There is no evidence in the materials of the internal investigation that Gizo Uglava threatened or exerted pressure on any person.
- Gizo Uglava provided indisputable materials that demonstrate the personal interest of the NABU Director and certain individuals in his dismissal.
- The fact that the decision of the Disciplinary Commission was published in the media even before the Client was notified (with details of the distribution of votes, recommendations on the types of disciplinary sanctions) indicates that the NABU continues to leak information!
The final decision after receiving the Commission’s recommendations will be made by NABU Director Semen Kryvonos. When making his decision, he will also take into account the fact that Uglava unauthorisedly recorded conversations with him.
As reported by Kommersant Ukrayinsky , detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau are writing massive reports on their superiors.
The sources of Kommersant Ukrainskiy claim that NABU detectives report, in particular, on the First Deputy Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Gizo Uglava, on cases of interference in the work of detectives, unspoken instructions, information leaks, etc.
The detectives became more active after the scandal of information leakage in a high-profile case.
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What is known about the “information leak” in the NABU
on 22 May, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office conducted searches at the home of a NABU employee suspected of abuse of office.
The media reported that the searches were conducted as part of a criminal investigation into a “big construction” case.
As the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office explained earlier, one and a half billion hryvnias disappeared during the Big Construction project. The case involves the former head of the Dnipro Regional State Administration Valentyn Reznichenko and his partner, the current consultant to the Prosecutor General’s Office Yurii Holyk.
It should be noted that the Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau has suspended his first deputy, Gizo Uglava, to ensure an “objective pre-trial investigation” launched over the alleged leak.
The anti-corruption agencies promised to publish the results of the investigation.
What is known about Gizo Uglava
Gizo Uglava worked at the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia from 1998 to 2012. During this period, he received three state awards: The Medal of Honour, the Order of Honour and the Order of the Shining.
In 2015, Uglava was granted Ukrainian citizenship and became the first deputy director of the new anti-corruption body, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). In April 2022, he began acting as NABU director due to the absence of a permanent head. In March 2023, Semen Kryvonos was appointed NABU Director.
In 2017, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine opened a case against Uglava to find out whether he had Georgian citizenship at the time of his appointment to a public office in Ukraine. The NABU stated that the proceedings were a form of pressure on the organisation and explained that Uglava automatically lost his Georgian citizenship when he received Ukrainian citizenship.