Bakhmatyuk demands that Venediktova comply with court ruling to close trumped-up case targeting him

The businessman appealed  to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova demanding that the case, whose resumption was found unlawful in court, be closed, as reported by Ukrainian News. 

On June 5, 2020, Kyiv's Pechersk district court ruled the decision of former Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko to resume the case against former Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleksandr Pysaruk and businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk was unlawful. By its judgment, the court ordered that the prosecutor general immediately repeal Kasko's decision. However, the Office of the Prosecutor General is not complying with the court judgment. In an open appeal to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Bakhmatyuk said a delay in the implementation of a lawful court judgment may testify to a politicized matter, recalling Venediktova's public promise to be equidistant from politics and adhere to the rule of law. 

Bakhmatyuk in his appeal recalled the court had clearly indicated a number of gross violations of law and ordered the prosecutor general to cancel the unlawful decision to resume the criminal case against him and his company: "On June 5 this year, Kyiv's Pechersk district court put an end to our eight-month-long fight for justice in a trumped-up case that was illegally initiated by former Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko." He said the company had become a hostage to the personal revenge of [Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine] Artem Sytnyk and a hostage to conspiracy of former officials [Head of the President's Office] Andriy Bohdan and Vitaliy Kasko: "They resumed the criminal case, which had already been investigated by law enforcement agencies and decided to close the case. The legality and validity of the decision of the law enforcement body to close the case were confirmed by the prosecutor general of Ukraine and the court." 

Bakhmatyuk says 16 days have passed since the court ruling was made, but the relevant decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General never appeared, although the Office of the Prosecutor General has always complied with court judgments in all other cases. "It seems to us the delay in the enforcement of the court judgment may politicized rather than being about protecting the law. We would really like to be wrong. Indeed, in an interview you said that you are "equidistant from politics and that the Office of the Prosecutor General does not play along with anyone," and during your address to the Verkhovna Rada you promised to stand by the principles of the rule of law," said Bakhmatyuk. "The obligation to enforce a court judgment is precisely one of the basic principles of the rule of law. And the fate of the company, which, in conditions of unprecedented pressure, an economic crisis and pandemic, keeps working, creating a Ukrainian product and paying taxes, depends on this." 

As reported earlier, on May 13, the Office of the Prosecutor General registered a criminal case into the possible interference in the activities of the former prosecutor general by former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. This was done in pursuance of the ruling of Kyiv's Pechersk district court. On June 17, the Office of the Prosecutor General opened criminal proceedings into a Moscow trip by representatives of the Opposition Platform – For Life parliamentary faction following the ruling of the Pechersk district court.