Ukrainian judge HD suspected bribery

Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency, Nabo, announced on Tuesday the arrest of Chief Justice Vsevolod Knyazev. Another person was arrested in what the authorities describe as a widespread corruption scandal in the country’s highest legal body.

– With real issues, we show what our priority is: corruption at the top, criminal activity at the highest levels of power, says Nabo President Simien Krivonos, according to Reuters.

on his Telegram channel Nabu writes that there is a system to usurp benefits from HD judges through payments. There, the authority is also posting a photo from the police raid on the case. The photo shows a large number of banknotes on the sofa.

According to the information RBC-Ukraine It is said that Knyazjev was caught accepting a bribe of nearly 30 million crowns.

– Measures have been taken to investigate other people and their involvement in the crime, says Prosecutor General Alexander Omeltenko, according to the Novaya Gazeta.

According to the prosecutor, Chief Justice Knyazzhev has not yet been officially notified of the suspicion of a crime, which is expected to happen within the next 24 hours.

Knyazzhev was appointed judge of HD in 2017. At the end of 2021, he was elected chief judge.

In June 2022, Ukraine is a candidate country for membership in the European Union. One of the commission’s conditions for future membership was that the state intensify its fight against corruption. Since then, several senior politicians and civil servants have been investigated for suspected crimes.

When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kiev in February, she said Ukraine was making impressive progress on the path to membership in the Union.

– She said then that it is safe to see how the anti-corruption agency is on alert.

At the same time, Transparency International’s Corruption Index shows that problems remain significant in the country. There, Ukraine ranks 116th out of a total of 180 ranked countries.