U.K. Probing Whether Ukraine's Ex-Tax Chief May Stand Trial in Britain

2017/6/17 21:21:38

Ukrainian prosecutors accuse Roman Nasirov, who was removed from his post on March 3, of defrauding the Ukrainian state of 2 billion hryvnias (about $77 million) to the benefit of fugitive Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko. [Photo depicts Nasirov as he appeared in court, March 2017]

 


From RFE/RL, June 16, 2017

 

KYIV -- British authorities are examining whether Ukraine's former tax chief, a Ukrainian citizen who may also hold a British passport, committed crimes for which he could be prosecuted in the United Kingdom after a court in Ukraine ignored evidence they provided, according to the British Embassy in Kyiv.

 

Roman Nasirov, the former chief of Ukraine's Fiscal Service and an ally of President Petro Poroshenko, was arrested in Ukraine on corruption charges in March, a move that was heralded as a landmark win for anticorruption officials in the country's fight against entrenched graft.

 

But in the ensuing trial, prosecutors have struggled to have all evidence, including that provided by Britain, heard by the Kyiv court. That prompted the British Embassy to take the extraordinary step of announcing on June 16 that it will consider other possible prosecutorial options against the tax chief.

 

"We are deeply concerned about the recent decision in Kyiv's Solomiansky court, where evidence provided by the UK in relation to the case against Roman Nasirov was ruled inadmissible and disregarded," the British Embassy in Kyiv said in a statement published on its social-media accounts.

 

[…]

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-uk-pro ... ief-nasirov/28558988.html

Printer Friendly Page Send this Story to a Friend Create a PDF from the article