Controversial procurator general remains, despite rampant rumors (01/13/02)

Controversial procurator general remains, despite rampant rumors

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko remained in his post on January 9 after several uncertain days during which reports circulated that the country's controversial chief prosecutor would be dismissed.

The rumor was based on several events that had taken place during the prior week concerning Mr. Potebenko - most notably an announcement that he had been placed on the Communist Party candidate list for the upcoming parliamentary elections and that his office had begun an investigation into illegal arms sales by two former chiefs of Ukraine's intelligence service, the Security Service of Ukraine, known by its Ukrainian acronym, SBU.

On January 9 Mr. Potebenko disclaimed the report, which he said was floated by those who would have his political head. He denied during a press conference that anybody from above had indicated in any way that he should resign.

"This is a disgusting provocation by those who either are trying to cover their criminal dealings or those who are looking to gain an advantage for the elections," said Mr. Potebenko, who explained that his agency would be intricately involved in investigating election fraud during the parliamentary campaigns.

He said that certain people would like to see a vacant post and an agency thrown into confusion, which would allow them to continue in their lawless ways.

Nonetheless, neither President Leonid Kuchma, who appoints the country's procurator general, nor any other high-ranking official in the president's administration has thus far publicly spoken out in support of Mr. Potebenko.

On January 7, the press office of the presidential administration said it had no information on the matter because administration officials were observing Christmas.

Hearsay first surfaced after Mr. Potebenko was named to the 20th spot on the candidate slate of the Communist Party during its congress on January 5. Mr. Potebenko's placement almost certainly assures him a seat in Parliament because the Communist Party has historically taken some 25 percent, or just over 100 seats, in parliamentary elections.

Many political experts said Mr. Potebenko should have immediately tendered his resignation because it would be unethical for a member of the political opposition to hold a position in the law enforcement arm of state authority, especially around election time. Mr. Potebenko told reporters that he had no intention of resigning until he was elected a national deputy.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the first vice prime minister who was dismissed from her government post after Mr. Potebenko brought corruption charges against her at the beginning of last year - incriminations that were later dropped by a Ukrainian high court - reacted to the inclusion of Mr. Potebenko in the Communist slate by calling the move "a logical and worthy end to his career."

"The Communists and the officials in power are a single entity," explained Ms. Tymoshenko. "[Mr. Potebenko] buried all the crimes of those in power today in the depths of the Procurator General's Office, so it is logical that he find his last shelter in the Communist Party of Ukraine."

The unfounded rumors of the political demise of Mr. Potebenko could also have been the result of an announcement by the Procurator General's Office on January 4 that it would open a criminal case into allegations of illegal arms sales by high-ranking former and current government officials. Mr. Potebenko's aide, Deputy Procurator General Oleksander Otamaniuk, head of the agency's military investigations department, explained that he would proceed based on a report submitted by National Deputy Hryhorii Omelchenko. Mr. Omelchenko and National Deputy Anatolii Yermak have alleged that the Secretary of National Security and Defense, Yevhen Marchuk, and Leonid Derkach, both directors of the State Security Service of Ukraine at one time, are involved in illegal weapons trade.

While both these issues were sufficiently explosive to have President Kuchma seek his chief prosecutor's dismissal, Ihor Zhdanov, political analyst at the Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies, said he believes the erroneous report of Mr. Potebenko's dismissal was simply a political trial balloon floated by officials to determine the extent to which politicians and voters want him removed.

He did not exclude that the rumors could portend a future sacking, such as happened with Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii Kravchenko, who was dismissed by Mr. Kuchma after a week of rumors, which in that instance the president had denied until the final moment.

Mr. Zhdanov explained that the Kuchma administration understands that in the current situation it would be very difficult to find a replacement for Mr. Potebenko until after the elections and would be willing to wait until after March 31.

"There has been a low level of confidence in the procurator general for a long time now anyway, so if he stays on the job that situation would not change," explained Mr. Zhdanov, adding that Razumkov Center surveys have given Mr. Potebenko not much more than 10 percent popular support for several months now.

Mr. Zhdanov said that while he could not exclude the possibility that the illegal arms sales investigation also could have put Mr. Potebenko on more political blacklists, he predicted that prior to the March elections there could be much additional mudslinging and negative public relations, and from that vantage point this would be seen as merely one more example of it.

Mr. Potebenko has been under fire off and on for years, most recently since the beginning of last year, when the case of missing journalist Heorhii Gongadze exploded into a full-blown scandal and Mr. Potebenko found himself at the center of it. The procurator general was forced to defend his agency against accusations of ineptness. He was also extensively ridiculed for not being able to come to terms - publicly, at least - with the fact that a headless body found outside of Kyiv in the town of Tarascha was that of Mr. Gongadze, even when DNA testing showed the probability of it being so was 99.6 percent.

Lately he had been criticized for being unable to solve a single major crime that the Procurator General's Office had investigated in the last several years: the Gongadze case, the murder of journalist Ihor Alexandrov and the murder of banker and politician Vadym Hetman. Among those who criticized the chief prosecutor's performance was Volodymyr Yatsenko, national deputy and fellow Communist Party member, who did so at the January 5 party congress.

Mr. Potebenko rejected the negative assessment of his work during a January 9 press conference during which he stated that the murderers of Messrs. Hetman and Alexandrov have been found and will go to trial shortly. He did not mention that the person charged with assassinating Mr. Hetman has never been publicly identified and that many politicians have rejected the officially presented scenario for Mr. Alexandrov's murder as comical at best.

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