Nasirov arrested: a blow against corruption in Ukraine

On 2 March 2017 officers from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), charged Roman Nasirov, the head of the State Fiscal Service, with abuse of powers (under Article 354 of the Penal Code).

On the night of 6 to 7 March, a court defined the preventative measure in terms of 60 days’ detention or a fine of 100 million hryvnia. Nasirov was accused of the unlawful restructuring of tax arrears from businesses belonging to Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a former parliamentarian, who himself has been accused of corrupt practices in gas trading, and is in hiding abroad. The state is estimated to have lost around 2 billion hryvnia as a result.

On 3 March, the government suspended Nasirov from his duties for the duration of the investigation, but the Attorney General Yuri Lutsenko criticised the actions of NABU, accusing the investigators of violating procedures. President Petro Poroshenko only commented on Nasirov’s arrest on the afternoon of 6 March; he said that it was proof of the independence of the bodies tackling corruption in Ukraine.