The bail has been set at UAH 3,001,656, instead of UAH 6 million initially sought by prosecutors.Oleksandr Yurchenko / Photo from UNIAN, Oleksandr Kuzmin

The High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine on Monday, September 21, partly satisfied the prosecutors’ motion and ruled to remand in custody Member of Parliament Oleksandr Yurchenko, who had been charged in a corruption-related criminal investigation.

The bail has been set at UAH 3,001,656, instead of UAH 6 million initially sought by prosecutors, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

If the bail is posted, the legislator will be obliged to wear an e-bracelet.

The ruling may be appealed in the Court’s Appellate Chamber.

The investigation accuses the MP in receiving a bribe and inciting another person to taking a bribe of $200,000.

Speaking at the court room today, Yurchenko claimed he had nothing to do with extorting a bribe, while the probe targeting him is a provocation by those who stand against reform in the waste management system of Ukraine, including “packaging manufacturers and other groups of influence.”

The deputy skipped the previous hearing after his lawyers claimed he contacted a fellow MP who has coronavirus. Therefore, the hearing was postponed for Monday, September 21.

Meanwhile, the ruling Servant of the People faction has ostracized Yurchenko, expelling him from their ranks.

Corruption scandal in Verkhovna Rada

• The National Anti-corruption Bureau during a sting operation involving an undercover detective has established that the MP had allegedly demanded through an intermediary US$13,000 for submitting proposals to the draft law on solid waste recycling and another $200,000 for bribing parliamentary committee members to approve the proposals filed.
• On September 15, Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova announced in parliament that she saw no reason to serve Yurchenko with charge papers in the bribery case.
• The Special Anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office said that the aide to the lawmaker, Ivan Feshchenko, had been served with charge papers and is suspected of complicity in the bribery case involving a Member of Parliament. According to the investigation, the aide acted as an intermediary in obtaining US$13,000 for submitting proposals. He is also charged with the solicitation of a further US$200,000 bribe. The court ruled to arrest Feshchenko, setting bail of over UAH 1 million. He was eventually bailed out and got out of the detention center.
• On September 17, Venediktova officially pressed criminal charges against Yurchenko and signed a motion to the court asking to remand him in custody.

(C)UNIAN 2020