Verkhovna Rada dismisses Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed a no-confidence motion against Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Riaboshapka.
As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, 263 lawmakers voted in favor of this decision at an extraordinary sitting on Thursday.

The draft law No. 3154 on the no-confidence motion against Prosecutor General of Ukraine Ruslan Riaboshapka was filed at the Verkhovna Rada the day before. The draft was signed by more than 100 MPs, including the members of the Servant of the People party faction.

The explanatory note to the draft law states that for more than half a year at the post Riaboshapka "has not demonstrated any activity in the investigation into the illegal actions of senior officials of the state, no high-profile pre-trial investigation has been conducted during his tenure, no indictment in such cases has been sent to court and, as a result, no sentence has been passed."

On 29 August 2019, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Ruslan Riaboshapka at the post of the Prosecutor General. Prior to that, he had served as the Deputy Chairman of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

During the presidential campaign, Riaboshapka was an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky for law enforcement and anti-corruption policy issues, and before that he had worked at the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption.

Riaboshapka initiated the reform of the Prosecutor General’s Office. On 19 September 2019, the Parliament passed the law on amendments to some legislative acts of Ukraine on priority measures for the reform of the Prosecutor's Office.