10/15/2023
Oleksandr Hrytsenko has successfully defended his interests
We are pleased to announce that the Litigation Group's team headed by partner Maryna Myronenko successfully defended the interests of Hrytsenko Oleksandr Viktorovych (ex-chairman of the JSC “State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine” (UKREXIMBANK)) on December 30, 2022. The team managed to close criminal case No. 52020000000000636 regarding trumped-up charges of Mr. Hrytsenko on committing atrocity crimes, such as the creation and management of a criminal organization, the legalization of criminally obtained funds (money laundering). Also, should be noted that the mentioned resolution on the case closure was signed by the investigator of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and confirmed by the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine.
A very important achievement of the team is criminal case closure precisely on the basis of the lack of evidence to prove the guilt of Mr. Hrytsenko (clause 3 part 1 of article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine). Mentioned reason for case closure is a piece of absolute and unequivocal evidence for any criminal charges absent to Mr. Oleksandr Viktorovych from law enforcement bodies of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the ECtHR completely satisfied Mr. Hrytsenko's claim and stated Ukraine violation of paragraph 1 of Article 5 of the ECHR and illigal detention of Mr. Hrytsenko. It is worth noting that the ECtHR stated in the 10th paragraph its decision: "Having examined all the material submitted to it, the Court has not found any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion on the admissibility and merits of these complaints. Having regard to its case-law on the subject, the Court considers that in the instant case the applicant detention during period described in the appended table was not in accordance with Article 5 § 1 of the Convention.".[1]
There was a bizzare background of the illegal and politically motivated detention and subsequent persecution of Mr. Hrytsenko. In mid-November 2019, Oleksandr Hrytsenko, who was then the head of the state-owned UKREXIMBANK, was detained and charged withcommitting atrocity crimes, such as the creation and management of a criminal organization, the legalization of criminally obtained funds (money laundering). The notice of suspicion was signed by a notorious prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulik[2]. This person had previously presented groundless suspicion notices to Ukraine's top officials, which was reported by the media[3], and as a result, all these groundless cases were closed. As of now, Mr. Kulyk himself is a suspect and internationally wanted in a case of high treason by the State Security Service of Ukraine[4] and sanctioned by the US government for interfering in the US elections[5].
In the end,it took about 3.5 years and the hard work of the entire legal team to recover Mr. Hrytsenko violated rights, dispel all the charges brought against him.
[1] https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-227730%22]}
[2]https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2019/11/16/7232186/
[3] https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/576231.html
[4]https://daily.rbc.ua/rus/show/pratsyuvav-interesah-rosiyi-k-eks-prokuroru-1671524890.html
[5] https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=30062