The SBI is Investigating a Traffic Accident in the City of Kamianske Involving the Vehicle of an Officer of the Dnipro Internal Security Department

In April of last year, the Information Agency of the NGO “Anti-Corruption Human Rights Council” published information about a traffic accident that occurred at the entrance to the city of Kamianske. The article referred to the possible involvement in the accident of an operative officer of the Dnipro Internal Security Department of the National Police of Ukraine, Senior Police Lieutenant Kristian Laiosha. It should be noted that this officer had been brought into the department by the former head of the Dnipro Internal Security Department, Volodymyr Zhelizniak. We have previously written about the specifics of Mr. Zhelizniak’s work in that position. We also received information that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) was investigating the aforementioned traffic accident.

Six months after the publication of the article, Mr. Laiosha himself contacted us. In his letter, he demanded that we retract the assumption regarding his possible involvement in the traffic accident. He also complained about the dissemination of false and negative information. However, Mr. Laiosha did not specify which particular information on the website was allegedly false. What exactly were we supposed to retract—the fact that the accident occurred, despite the photographs of the wrecked Škoda? Or were the journalists of our information agency supposed to retract the possible involvement of Mr. Laiosha himself in the accident?

We decided to determine how the traffic accident in the city of Kamianske, involving the vehicle used by an operative officer of the Dnipro Internal Security Department, was being investigated.

We submitted a request to the National Police of Ukraine. We requested information regarding the progress of the investigation into the possible involvement of Kristian Laiosha in the accident. Among other things, we were interested in the following issues: whether the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Dnipropetrovsk region knew which vehicle Kristian Laiosha used during working hours; whether an internal investigation had been conducted regarding the accident involving the Škoda vehicle; whether the persons injured in the accident and the person responsible for it had been identified; who removed the vehicle’s license plates and for what purpose, and why the driver transporting Kristian Laiosha fled the scene of the accident. If Kristian Laiosha had caused the accident, what measures had been taken to hold him legally accountable? And whether the property damage suffered by the owners had been compensated.

The response to the request addressed to the National Police was provided by the State Bureau of Investigation. The SBI is investigating the traffic accident that occurred in the city of Kamianske within the framework of pre-trial investigation No. 62021170030000107. The incident was classified under Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code as a criminal offense. The pre-trial investigation was assigned to investigators of the Third Investigative Department (located in the city of Dnipro) of the SBI Territorial Directorate located in Poltava. Procedural supervision was to be carried out by the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Not every traffic safety violation is investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation, nor is every such case supervised by a regional prosecutor’s office. According to its jurisdiction, the State Bureau of Investigation is responsible for investigating criminal offenses committed, among others, by law enforcement officers and other public officials. For example, the traffic accident allegedly involving Servant of the People Member of Parliament Oleksandr Trukhin is being investigated by the SBI. In our case, the SBI is investigating the traffic accident because of the possible involvement of police officer Kristian Laiosha.

Incidentally, Servant of the People MP Oleksandr Trukhin has stated that he was not driving the Audi vehicle at the time of the accident.

Returning to the traffic accident in Kamianske, the SBI confirms that the Škoda Octavia belonged to Kristian Laiosha. Information about this vehicle is also found in Kristian Laiosha’s asset declaration, which reveals that the car belongs to the police officer’s mother and that he merely used it.

However, according to the SBI, at the time of the accident Laiosha was seated in the passenger seat, while the vehicle was being driven by a civilian. Perhaps it was the police officer’s mother, who is the registered owner of the vehicle?

The SBI also states that after the accident Kristian Laiosha proceeded to his place of duty. If the SBI’s account is to be believed, we have a wrecked vehicle and a passenger in the person of Mr. Laiosha who gets out of it and hurries off to work. It should be recalled that Kristian Laiosha was supposed to travel to the city of Dnipro, where the Internal Security Department of the Dnipropetrovsk region is located at 19 Sicheslavska Naberezhna Street.

The SBI further states that after the accident the vehicle used by Kristian Laiosha was taken to a temporary impound lot for seized vehicles. Inside the vehicle, investigators discovered license plates that had been removed and folded up, which may indicate an attempt to conceal the identity of the vehicle’s owner.

During the inspection of the vehicle, biological samples were collected from the contact surfaces inside the vehicle. This procedure makes it possible to determine who had actually been driving. In other words, whoever’s fingerprints are found on the steering wheel could potentially have been operating the vehicle.

The SBI further stated in its response that the alleged involvement of operative officer K.V. Laiosha of the Dnipro Internal Security Department of the National Police in causing the traffic accident was not objectively or documentarily confirmed.

If the SBI is to be believed, Kristian Laiosha, who regularly used the Škoda Octavia, never touched the steering wheel. Instead, he always had a civilian accompanying him who drove him wherever he needed to go. However, on April 16, 2021, because of the accident, Laiosha never reached his destination, but instead became the subject of an article published by the Information Agency of the NGO “Anti-Corruption Human Rights Council.”

The SBI also reported that criminal proceeding No. 62021170030000107 was closed due to the absence of the elements of a criminal offense.

The SBI explained this decision by stating that no individuals sustained bodily injuries as a result of the traffic accident that occurred on April 16, 2021.

Leave the scene of the accident in time, reach an agreement with the injured party, and face no criminal liability. That is the lesson one might draw from the situation involving the vehicle used by Kristian Laiosha.

What do we actually see? An officer of the Dnipro Internal Security Department, on the morning following the celebration of Criminal Investigation Day, was allegedly riding in the passenger seat of his own vehicle. The vehicle was involved in a traffic accident; for unknown reasons its license plates disappeared; and Laiosha allegedly continued on to work.

In our opinion, this is a highly questionable investigation and its conclusions are illogical.

One crow does not peck out another crow’s eye—or perhaps the honest police officer truly became unintentionally involved in an unfortunate accident?