The Office of the Prosecutor General did not withdraw the charges in the criminal proceedings against NABU detective Viktor Husarov; instead, the case was dismissed by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv on June 4 solely due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. This was announced by Maryana Hayovska-Kovbasyuk, head of the OGP press service. According to her, the suspect fully admitted his guilt in the illegal copying and transfer of data, which constitutes a non-rehabilitating ground for release from liability.
During the pre-trial investigation, law enforcement officials established that Viktor Husarov, a detective for the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), unauthorizedly transferred personal data of Ukrainian citizens obtained from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) databases to third parties. The suspect was charged with a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The court decided to close the case after the prosecutor filed a relevant motion on March 13. The Office of the Prosecutor General clearly delineated the legal reasons behind this resolution to the judicial process.
«The court dismissed the case not due to a lack of a crime, not because the charges were dropped, and not because the facts were unproven, but solely due to the expiration of the statute of limitations following an admission of guilt,» the OGP emphasized.
Investigative bodies also thoroughly examined the suspect’s potential involvement in high treason. This line of inquiry arose from the fact that a former colleague of Husarov has been located in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea since February 2014.
While this version was procedurally vetted, investigators did not find sufficient evidence of intent to pass information specifically to a representative of the aggressor state. Consequently, the prosecutor dropped the high treason portion of the proceedings. However, this does not negate the fact that a crime was committed under Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, to which Husarov admitted guilt.
Since the actions imputed to the detective took place between 2012 and 2015, the legally prescribed statute of limitations for criminal prosecution had already expired by the time the investigation was completed.