Overview
- The head of the Specialized Anti‑Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Oleksandr Klimenko, publicly called on Thursday for a new expert institution set up by law and separated from state expert bodies and the Ministry of Justice.
- SAP and NABU say they are investigating recent incidents that show interference with experts, including threats to a forensic expert in the Dynastiya cooperative probe.
- Searches of a state expert office turned up notes instructing staff to notify ‘interested parties’ if an expert order arrived in a Rotterdam+ case, and a Ukrzaliznytsia fraud inquiry recorded conversations about paying for favorable expert conclusions.
- Klimenko proposed specific legal safeguards such as statutory creation, internationalized and transparent leader selection, an independent supervisory board, legal protections against retaliatory disciplinary or criminal action, and competitive pay and equipment for experts.
- Experts’ impartial conclusions are often decisive in corruption trials, and SAP warns that leaving expert bodies under ministerial control lets actors delay, discredit, or buy findings and so can help suspects avoid criminal responsibility.