“If it is established that bureau employees are involved in the incident, strict response measures will be taken and the perpetrators will be held accountable under the law,” the statement says.
The SBI noted that the publication of the photo led to a “wave of false accusations” against the bureau and the law enforcement system as a whole. The SBI did not name the name, but the chairman of the board of the Anti-Corruption Center NGO Vitaly Shabunin said the day before that the SBI and the Office of the Prosecutor General “leaked” his intimate photographs from the phone seized during the search to Telegram channels.
The Office of the Prosecutor General, in a comment to Suspilny, denied any involvement in the dissemination of personal photographs of Shabunin. The department emphasized that they have not yet received a statement about the crime from the activist.
“Public attempts to groundlessly link the prosecutor’s office with the unauthorized dissemination of information from criminal proceedings are not based on facts and have signs of deliberate discrediting of the institution. The prosecutor’s office does not participate in information campaigns and does not comment on assumptions,” the commentary says.
The Prosecutor General added that if the distributed photos are not part of the criminal case file, and their publication is a violation of privacy, an investigation is possible only at the request of the victim.
Context
On March 7, 2024, it became known that criminal proceedings had been opened against Shabunin for allegedly evading military service. Blogger Vladimir Boyko, who published the relevant extracts from the ERDR, stated that Shabunin provided the military unit where he was serving with several letters signed by the leadership of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption with a request to second him to the agency. In response, Shabunin published a photo of his military ID, which indicated that he took the military oath on February 25, 2022, and called the opening of production an attempt at media discredit by the Office of the President.
On July 11, the State Bureau of Investigation reported suspicions against one of the public activists for evading military service and using a car intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The name of the person involved is not disclosed, but the Anti-Corruption Center clarified that we are talking about the head of the organization, Vitaly Shabunin.
On July 15, Shabunin was chosen as a preventive measure – a personal obligation with a ban on contacting other suspects in the case, participating in the events of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP), as well as an obligation to surrender his international passport
On August 14, the State Bureau of Investigation announced the completion of the criminal investigation against Shabunin. According to the investigation, he systematically evaded military service with the assistance of the commander of the military unit. Shabunin himself accused the SBI of lying.
