‘Like being in an electric chair’: Ukraine’s female chief prosecutor on task of tackling country’s corruption

“We  live in a state where there is  corruption, we live in a strong oligarchic society , that’s why we have such tough challenges”,  said Iryna Venediktova. “ I knew this job was not going to be easy when I took it,  in this country the Prosecutor General’s seat is a bit like sitting on an electric chair.”  

The problems Ukraine’s first woman chief prosecutor faces are wide ranging. The endemic graft and malpractice ; the often malign influence of tycoons;  politicisation and attempted manipulation of the judicial system and the need to provide accountability abroad.

The issues have an international dimension. The IMF had made the continuation of the vast loans it makes to the country conditional on instituting sweeping reforms. Separately, there is an audit of what’s happening being taken by the European Union. 

It was this perceived climate of corruption which dragged Ukraine into the world of Donald Trump and the toxic politics of America under his administration. The attempt by the former US  President to blackmail the Ukrainian government into launching an investigation into the business activities of Joe Biden and his son, led to his first impeachment on charges of soliciting foreign interference in last year’s presidential election.   

Trump and his advisors, led by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, accused Joe Biden of pushing for the removal of then senior prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, to prevent an investigation into Hunter Biden, and the company he worked for, Burisma. 

An investigation carried out by Ruslan Ryaboshapka, a former Prosecutor General,  concluded that the Bidens were not engaged in illegality. Some in the Trump team insisted, without offering any evidence, that this was a cover up, and there was likely to have been pressure for another inquiry had Trump been re-elected. 

Ms Venediktova, who has been at her post 11 months, stressed that there were no plans to reopen the inquiry,  and she is glad, she says, that Ukraine did not get further enmeshed in American politics.  

“This has been looked at by prosecutors and they have carried out their work, I do not see any grounds at present to start it again”, she said from her office in Kyiv. 

“I want to say that it was very good that our country was not involved in the US election. The investigation came because of some allegations made over here; but that is now over. The issue is not about the criminal justice system here, it is about geopolitics. I don’t want to get involved in or make comments about international politics.” 

A separate inquiry into Hunter Biden, by Senate Republicans, also failed to find any wrongdoing. But there is now an investigation into his tax affairs which the departing Trump administration has been accused of orchestrating. 

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The probe relates to Mr Biden’s foreign earnings in China and Ukraine, and there is a strong possibility that authorities in Kyiv will once again be asked to carry out checks. Hunter Biden has insisted that he acted “legally and appropriately” and maintains that he will be exonerated. 

Ms Venediktova told The Independent: “I have no information on this through any official channel, so I do not know what will happen in the future. But what I can say is that if there is any developments, our behaviour will not be any different now than it was before the US election when the last matter came up”. 

The Prosecutor General pointed out that she has hands full with internal issues in Ukraine without foreign distractions. The job of an active prosecutor, she has found out, brings risks. 

“I have had to change my address, live in different places, from time to time after some information has been received. I don’t want to make a big thing of it, but it is something you cannot ignore.  I have a strong family, we have learned how to manage it”, she said. 

Ms Venediktova, 42, is an academic with two children. She is a former legal advisor to the Volodymyr Zelensky, the President, before he ran for office. 

Her husband was against her taking her post in the prosecution service . “He knew the problems that I’ll face. But he has been totally supportive from the moment I decided to take it, I have the support of my family in what I am doing”,  she said. “ Some of my friends may have had doubts as well, but we work 18 hours a day and I don’t have the time to see them.” 

The Prosecutor General said she did not experience any overt problems as the first woman to hold the job.  “There is not such a strong separation in Ukrainian society in work. Maybe some people could not understand me being there. But I don’t mind working in what may be a male environment,” she said. 

Ms Venediktova continued: “Of course there is pressure of a political kind, accusations are made to try and stop you. I have been the Prosecutor General for less than a year and I have several criminal cases lodged against me.  

“But that happens to people here ; the system is such that the court must open a case if anyone beings an allegation basically and they go on for a long time”, she said.“ But I am not afraid of that. My conscience is clear; I sleep very soundly at night.” 

One of the accusations against the Prosecutor General is that she used “manipulative language” in a speech to Parliament in September last year. After claiming that there was not enough evidence to investigate an MP, Oleksandr Yurchenko, it is claimed, she was forced to order his detention the next day. Ms Venediktova denies the allegation. 

Ms Venediktova held  there were deep-seated problems caused by powerful and wealthy vested interests. “Oligarchs who abuse their power is a problem for everybody, their needs to be action by Parliament, by the Government, by people like anti-monopolies committee, with that back-up, the prosecutors can act,” she said. 

One well known oligarch involved in legal action is Ihor Kolomoisky, who had been a backer of Mr Zelensky when he ran for the Presidency.  Kolomoisky was accused of defrauding Ukraine’s largest bank, PrivatBank, of billions of dollars.  PrivatBank brought a lawsuit against Kolomoisky at the High Court in London which initially froze $2.6 billion of his assets before deciding that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. 

Last year, a Ukrainian court ruled that the nationalisation of PrivatBank was illegal. Mr Kolomoisky says he does not seek to take back control and is seeking $ 2 billion in compensation. PrivatBank is separately accused by the authorities of poor lending practices which led to $ 5.5 billion losses before nationalisation. 

On Tuesday this week Ms Veneditkova announced the opening of investigations for fraud of $4.8 million against three former PrivatBank officials allegedly carried out in the run-up to state ownership in 2016. 

Ms Venediktova acknowledged that there is still concern abroad about corruption in Ukraine : “We don’t have much time. Thirty years of independence may not be very long in terms of democracy in westen Europe or America, but it is long enough.” 

“But”, she insisted, “we have made real progress. I just held one of regular meetings with officials from Eurojust ( EU justice cooperation agency).  I  meet American colleagues, they can see that we are trying hard and we are succeeding in many cases.” 

The Prosecutor General points to the extradition of 37 suspects last year including two alleged senior members of Islamic State and a Taliban leader as well as two people accused of laundering $ 145 million. She points out that Ukrainian authorities have worked with international colleagues on an organised crime group defrauding the public in Europe and US of around $ 12 million ; and a cybercrime group involving a Ukrainian hacker which operated in 11 countries including Britain. 

At the end, despite the frustrations and the difficulties, Ms Venediktova says she finds her job “very satisfying”.  One of the main reasons for that is “our civic society which has a realisation of the high level this country can reach. That is something very special and very encouraging.  

“We are also lucky with our young people. I went to speak at Odessa University recently, and it reminded me why I had loved working with students for 20 years. They are the future, and we need to leave them a better country.”