Ukraine: Judicial harassment of anti-corruption activist Mr Vitaliy Shabunin

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Ukraine.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the ongoing and escalating judicial harassment and politically motivated criminal prosecution of Mr Vitaliy Shabunin, founder and chair of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), a prominent civil society organisation based in Kyiv that works to strengthen Ukraine’s measures against corruption and enhance transparency. In the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Mr Shabunin currently holds the rank of sergeant in the 43rd Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and voluntarily mobilised during the first days of the full-scale invasion, in 2022.

On 15 July 2025, Mr Shabunin was brought before the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv in a criminal case linked to his work in defending human rights, promoting anti-corruption, and advancing transparency in Ukraine. The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) accused him of “evading military service” and “fraud” (under Part 4 of Article 409 and Part 2 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code). The SBI's accusations of his alleged evasion of service are based on the period when Shabunin was seconded to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP), done in accordance to his official order of the command.

During the hearing, Judge Svitlana Grechana ruled in favour of the prosecution’s request and prohibited Mr Shabunin from leaving the place of deployment of his military unit, except for duties directly related to military service. Moreover, the name of the village where he is deployed, 50 km away from the line of contact, was publicly announced at the court hearing, creating further risks for Mr Shabunin’s security.

Mr Shabunin was also barred from communicating with all officials of the NACP, his former commander Mr Viktor Yushko, and all servicemen of the unit where he served in 2022. These duties are impossible to implement since there are hundreds of people who fall into this criteria that Mr Shabunin does not even know or haven’t ever met. Mr Shabunin is forbidden from entering the NACP building, as well as required to surrender his passport for foreign travel.

If sentenced, Mr Shabunin could face up to 10 years of detention. The criminal case opened against him falls within a pattern of smear campaigns of which Mr Shabunin had been a victim over the last decade, with the latest one wrongly accusing him of evading military services.

In a joint statement published on 15 July 2025, more than 100 Ukrainian civil society organisations denounced that this criminal prosecution is carried out in violation of Ukraine's obligations under Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights) in conjunction with Article 6 (right to a fair trial) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) of this Convention and called for an end to the use of the justice system as a tool for political reprisals.

On 11 July 2025, Mr Shabunin had denounced on his Telegram channel that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) was carrying out searches at several addresses linked to him. The searches happened while Mr Shabunin was on active duty in the Chuhuiv district of the Kharkiv region, and his family, including his wife and two minor children, were at home in Kyiv.

In his place of military service, a lieutenant colonel of the security services deceitfully asked Mr Shabunin to show his phone for a counterintelligence check. The officer took the unlocked device and rushed to leave with it. A few hours later, an SBI operative brought the phone back in the room claiming he had “found” it, but refused to give it back to Mr Shabunin.

Simultaneous searches happened in his registered residence in Kyiv, where his family, including young children, live. The SBI seized his relatives’ devices, including his children’s tablets. Later, the SBI informed they had returned all the confiscated gadgets, which Mr Shabunin denied. The searches were conducted in the absence of court warrants and of Mr Shabunin’s lawyers, which only arrived to their Kyiv home at the end of the searches, making them illegal and in violation of the right to a due process.

Furthermore, later, Telegram channels linked to authorities unlawfully disclosed and manipulatedpersonal data from the confiscated mobile phone of Mr Shabunin’s wifeInformation about temporary refuge of Shabunin’s family in the United States in 2022–2023 was leaked and falsely presented as his own property allegedly worth 1 million USD (approximately 861 000 Euros).

On 14 August 2025, the SBI announced it had completed the investigation into criminal proceedings against Vitaliy Shabunin. After Mr Shabunin’s defence reviews the case materials, an indictment is expected to be submitted to the court. On 19 August, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv extended the preventive measure in the form of Vitaliy Shabunin’s personal commitment to remain in the premises of his military unit except for performing military duties for another two months, until 19 October 2025.

On August 15, Mr Shabunin’s lawyer, Ms Olena Shcherban, has reported being subjected to pressure and an attempt to strip her of her legal license on the grounds of allegedly failing to complete mandatory annual professional training in time. In addition, smear messages targeting Ms Shcherban appeared in various Telegram channels. Complaints against her emerged only after she began working on Mr Shabunin’s case. Ms Shcherban has prepared and submitted the responses which allowed her to keep her legal license.

This persecution and stigmatisation is another episode in the long-standing history of attacks against Vitaliy Shabunin and the Anti-Corruption Center, headed by him. On 23 July 2020, Mr Shabunin’s house in the village of Hnidyn, near Kyiv, had suffered arson. The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation based on the clear “intention of destruction and damage to property”, but to the date of publication of this urgent alert, the investigation did not reach conclusions.

On 31 December 2020, it was reported that explosive devices had been discovered on the first floor of the apartment building of Shabunin's wife's parents in Borshchahivka, near Kyiv. Residents were evacuated and no one was injured. The day before, on 30 December, an explosive device consisting of two grenades was found outside the door of Vitaliy Shabunin's mother's apartment in Rivne. -

The Observatory strongly condemns the persecution and judicial harassment of Mr Shabunin, which appears aimed at punishing him for his legitimate fight against corruption and for transparency in Ukraine, as well as the exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

The Observatory calls on the Ukrainian authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against Mr Shabunin and to put an end to all forms of harassment against all human rights defenders in Ukraine.

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities of Ukraine asking them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr Vitaliy Shabunin and all other public figures, anti-corruption advocates, and human rights defenders in Ukraine;
2. Immediately cease all acts of harassment, including judicial persecution, against Mr Shabunin and ensure the criminal proceedings opened against him are promptly and impartially reviewed with a view to their closure, given the apparent political motivation behind them;
3. Ensure that Mr Shabunin and all other human rights defenders and anti-corruption activists in Ukraine can carry out their legitimate activities without obstruction, reprisals or fear of criminalisation;
4. Comply in all circumstances with Ukraine's obligations under Article 18 (limits of application of restrictions on rights) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in conjunction with Article 6 (right to a fair trial) and Article 10 (freedom of expression) of this Convention.

Addresses:

• Mr Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, Email: press@apu.gov.ua
• Mr Andrii Sybiha, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Email: zsmfa@mfa.gov.ua
• Mr German Galushchenko, Minister of Justice, Email: receptmin@ca.minjust.gov.ua
• Mr Ruslan Kravchenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Email: office@gp.gov.ua
• Mr. Oleksiy Sukhachev, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation. Email: press@dbr.gov.ua
• H.E. Tsymbaliuk Yevhenii, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Email: pm_un2@mfa.gov.ua
• H. E. Mr Dmytro Vasyliev, Ambassador, Embassy of Ukraine to Belgium and the European Union, Brussels, Email: emb_be@mfa.gov.ua

Please also write to the diplomatic representatives of Ukraine in your respective countries.

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Paris-Geneva, 3 November 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH. The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. OMCT and FIDH are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

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