In Kyiv, two judges were detained who offered the head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Nazar Kholodnytsky a bribe of $300 thousand to close criminal proceedings.
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About it Larisa Sargan, press secretary of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, wrote on her Facebook page, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings established that the chairman of the Kirovsky District Court of Dnepr, together with the judge of this court, in order to avoid criminal liability of the latter, who is suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine of committing a corruption criminal offense, proposed to the Deputy Prosecutor General - head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office N. Kholodnitsky, an undue benefit in the amount of 300 thousand US dollars for resolving the issue of closing criminal proceedings against a judge in order to avoid final criminal liability,” the statement says.
She noted that the Department for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases in the Economic Sphere of the Prosecutor General’s Office, with operational support from the Main Directorate for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime of the SBU, as part of monitoring the commission of a crime, documented the fact of offering and providing unlawful benefits to Nazar Kholodnitsky.
“The attackers were detained in accordance with Art. 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine after providing the first part of an unlawful benefit in the amount of 50 thousand US dollars,” the official added.
At the same time, she emphasized that one of the detained judges, while under investigation, had committed a criminal offense, despite the fact that the court applied a preventive measure against her in the form of house arrest with wearing an electronic means of control and a ban on leaving the locality in which she resides without the permission of the investigator, prosecutor or court.
“Currently, a complex of investigative and search actions are being carried out in order to establish all the circumstances of the criminal offense committed, and issues of choosing a preventive measure in the form of detention for the detainee are also being resolved. The actions of court employees are qualified under Part 4 of Art. 369 (offer, promise or provision of unlawful benefit to an official) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and for the criminal offense committed they face punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 10 years with confiscation of property,” the press secretary of the Prosecutor General clarified.