The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine (HACC) has remanded Oleksandr Demyanchuk — a figure in the “Carthage” case — into custody without bail. Meanwhile, journalists were not allowed to attend another hearing where a bail for a key figure — the SBU Major General Serhiy Duka — is being selected.
Demyanchuk is the deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kyiv region. According to the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), the court did not inform journalists about this meeting.
A hearing is also underway regarding the Deputy Head of the Department for the Protection of National Statehood of SBU, Major General Serhiy Duka, write Suspilne and BBC journalist Sofia Sereda.
The hearing was moved to another room without informing journalists, who had been waiting for over an hour and a half for it to begin in another room. SAPO Prosecutor Mykola Karas said he was surprised by this decision.
ACC notes that the judge decided to hold part of the hearing in closed session and part in open session. The closed session is currently underway, so even the broadcast on the screen in the adjacent room was turned off.
At the hearing, the SAPO prosecutor challenged the investigating judge of the Supreme Administrative Court Voronka. The prosecutor believes that Dukaʼs defense is trying to drag out the hearing so that the court does not have time to choose a preventive measure.
The prosecutor also stated that he did not understand why the judge decided to hold the hearing behind closed doors. According to him, SBU sent some kind of letter about the threat of a terrorist attack. But the prosecutor was not even given the opportunity to read it.
A new episode in the “Carthage” case
On November 4, anti-corruption authorities reported that they had uncovered another criminal group as part of Operation “Carthage". According to them, its members were involved in fraudulent call centers, drug trafficking, counterfeiting euros, kidnapping and beating people to order, and other crimes.
According to the investigation, current high-ranking officials of SBU, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office, the National Police, and representatives of the criminal environment were involved in the criminal activity.
On November 5, law enforcement officers declared the suspicion to 5 members of the organization. The suspicions were received by:
- the organizer of the group, aka "Criminal" on the recordings;
- the first deputy head of one of the SBU departments, who is referred to in the case materials as “Akim” (our sources said that this refers to Major General Serhiy Duka);
- the Deputy Head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Police in the Kyiv Region (“Consultant”, or Oleksandr Demyanchuk);
- the head of one of the departments of the National Police of Ukraine (“Price” — Volodymyr Tsenov, according to Babel);
- subordinate of the organizer of a criminal organization.
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