Controversial procurator general resigns post to take Parliament seat (04/28/02)

Controversial procurator general resigns post to take Parliament seat

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Mykhailo Potebenko, the controversial procurator general of Ukraine, announced on April 22 that he had tendered his resignation and would become a member of Parliament representing the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU).

Mr. Potebenko won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada from the CPU in by-party polling during the March 31 elections, in which his party took 20 percent of the vote. Mr. Potebenko held the 20th position on the party's slate.

"The experience of a person with practical professional experience will allow me to make a worthy contribution in the development of legislation, which will represent the interests of society and the state," said Mr. Potebenko during a press conference.

Ukraine's chief law enforcement official since 1998 - the last two years of his tenure being quite tumultuous - told journalists that he had submitted his resignation to President Leonid Kuchma on April 18. The resignation will become effective on April 30 if accepted by the president. He said that the 12-day lapse between the resignation and its effective date was done to allow a search for a successor to take place. Among those considered as possible successors is Assistant Procurator General Oleksander Bahanets.

Mr. Potebenko in many ways represented a bygone era, in the manner by which he kept tight rein over his agency and his uncompromising allegiance to his boss, President Kuchma. He had become particularly controversial in the last two years for his handling of the investigation into the murder of Heorhii Gongadze, the young journalist whose headless body was found outside Kyiv in November 2000.

Many had come to perceive Mr. Potebenko as hampering the investigation into the journalist's disappearance and death, and perhaps even leading a cover-up. Most telling was the way in which the procurator general initially cast doubt on results of a DNA test reported in February 2001, which determined with a 99.6 percent probability that the body exhumed from a shallow grave belonged to the journalist. He also had continued to refuse to work with relatives of Mr. Gongadze, specifically the widow and mother of the journalist, even after a court gave them special status that legally allowed them access to details of the investigation.

Most recently, on April 8-15, the Procurator General's Office headed by Mr. Potebenko had refused to cooperate with agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, citing Ukrainian law that prohibits sharing any information that is not in the public domain in an ongoing investigation, even though the Ukrainian government had invited the FBI to Kyiv. FBI agents, who had been assigned to the case from the bureau's National Center for Analysis of Violent Crimes, left Ukraine without being able to provide any substantive support.

Mr. Potebenko said he wants to keep a low profile in his new position as a national deputy in the Verkhovna Rada. He said he would be satisfied if he obtained membership in the parliamentary Committee on Law Enforcement. He also noted that he expects to remain chairman of the Coordinating Committee on Corruption and Organized Crime, which is part of the presidential administration.

Mr. Potebenko raised some eyebrows among pundits with the remark that he reserves the right in the future to resign from the Parliament and resume his former duties because he still has a year remaining in his five-year appointment as procurator general.

Mr. Potebenko is one of more than a half dozen government officials who have had to decide whether to stay in the executive branch or take their seats in the new Parliament. Vice Prime Minister Ivan Kyrylenko and Minister of Industrial Policy Vasyl Hureyev have also announced they would take seats in Parliament. Both are members of For a United Ukraine.

Volodymyr Lytvyn, President Kuchma's chief of staff and head of the For a United Ukraine bloc, has indicated he, too, would give up his position in the executive to assume duties in the legislative branch of government. Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh, another member of the bloc, has yet to announce a decision.

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