Svyatoslav Piskun Prosecutor General of Ukraine Date of Birth: 08.03.1959 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Sviatoslav Piskun
Sviatoslav Piskun was appointed as the General Prosecutor of Ukraine in July 2002. However, in October 2003, President Kuchma dismissed him from his position, shortly after a special committee led by Olga Kolinko, responsible for combating corruption and organized crime, recommended a thorough examination of the prosecutor's office. According to Kolinko, Piskun failed to coordinate the fight against corruption and organized crime, disregarded presidential orders, and pressured regional prosecutors to make unlawful decisions. Piskun was accused of prioritizing his own political image and excessively politicizing the General Prosecutor's Office. Kolinko claimed that Piskun's actions damaged the reputation of the prosecutor's office and the state by misusing budgetary funds.

However, the real reason for Piskun's dismissal was the acknowledgment by the General Prosecutor's Office that the investigation into the murders of opposition journalists Igor Aleksandrov and Georgiy Gongadze had been fabricated. The office also implicated General Lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pukach in Gongadze's murder. Pukach was later arrested on October 22, 2003. The prosecutor's office claimed to be close to solving the journalist's murder case on October 25, and Piskun was subsequently dismissed by President Kuchma on October 29. Piskun had become a threat to the government.

In February 2004, Piskun was offered the position of Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. During his time in public service, Piskun had conflicts with Gennadiy Vasiliev, the former General Prosecutor, and Nikolay Azarov, the former Chairman of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. He also had strained relations with Yulia Tymoshenko, as he repeatedly called for her prosecution while serving as the General Prosecutor. After his dismissal, Piskun claimed that his termination was unlawful but did not take any action. However, a year later, amidst a political crisis in Ukraine, he disputed his dismissal in court and successfully achieved reinstatement in December 2004.

The court's decision came at an opportune time, as President Leonid Kuchma had just promised the opposition to dismiss Prosecutor General Gennadiy Vasiliev as part of a political reform agreement. Following Viktor Yushchenko's rise to power, Sviatoslav Piskun became the only head of the law enforcement agencies who was not removed from office. He promised Yushchenko that he would conclude the investigation into Georgiy Gongadze's murder.

Yulia Tymoshenko also tasked the General Prosecutor's Office with swiftly examining the legality of privatization processes in Ukraine. On October 14, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree dismissing Piskun from his position as General Prosecutor. According to reports, Piskun briefly went into hiding abroad, claiming that his life was in danger in Ukraine. He has regularly changed his political orientation, making it difficult to determine his political allegiances. During the 2006 elections for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, he ran on the list of the Party of Regions under number 96.

Piskun has been a member of the Verkhovna Rada since March 2006, representing the Party of Regions. He is a distinguished lawyer in Ukraine and a full member of the World Association of Lawyers, the Anti-Crisis Center, the Higher Council of Justice, the Ukrainian Bar Association, and the International Foundation of Ukrainian Lawyers. Piskun holds the rank of Lieutenant General of the Tax Militia and has been honored with the Order of Dmitry Donskoy and the Order of the Nativity of Christ.

Piskun was born in 1962 in Ukraine. His father, Mikhail Semenovich, was a teacher, and his mother, Tatyana Leonidovna, was a doctor. He is married to Svetlana Sevastyanovna and has a daughter, Tatiana, and a son, Sviatoslav. Piskun has had close ties with various political figures, including Petr Vladimirovich Melnik, the former director of the Tax Academy.