On December 24, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office (PGO) registered proceedings in the case of the leak of intimate photos of Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Center.
Babel was informed about this by PGO.
The department said that the executors considered Shabuninʼs appeal on December 23, and on the 24th they entered it into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations.
The information was filed under Part 1 of Article 182 and Part 2 of Article 387 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — illegal collection and dissemination of confidential information and disclosure of data of operational and investigative activities.
What preceded
Shabunin said on December 16 that the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had leaked intimate photos of him from a phone seized during a search to Telegram channels. These searches took place in July. Shabunin is suspected of evading military service.
PGO said at the time that Shabunin had not filed any complaints about the leak, so they could not start an investigation. And the State Bureau of Investigation said it would check the employees who had access to Shabuninʼs phone. They called the leak allegations "false".
Shabuninʼs case
On July 11, Vitaliy Shabunin was reported on suspicion of evading military service and fraud.
A few hours before the announcement of the suspicion, law enforcement officers conducted searches at Shabuninʼs place of work in the Chuhuiv district of the Kharkiv region and at his home. The head of the Anti-Corruption Center himself, in response to the suspicion and searches, stated that President Volodymyr Zelensky was moving towards corrupt authoritarianism.
On July 15, the Pechersk District Court chose a preventive measure for Shabunin in the form of a personal bond.
On July 16, the State Bureau of Investigation searched the apartment of the deceased pilot Andriy "Juice" Pilshchikov — Shabunin had previously lived in this apartment.
On August 13, Shabuninʼs commander Viktor Yushko was charged in the case. The investigation believes that he helped Shabunin evade duty and abused his official position.
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