The chief of Ukraine’s Supreme Court was formally arrested on Thursday, as prosecutors indicated in a second day of hearings {that a} high-level corruption case was increasing to incorporate a wider circle of judges.
Prosecutors additionally accused a lawyer of performing as an middleman in paying a bribe to the chief justice, and stated that at the very least three different judges of the court docket had been discovered holding hundreds of {dollars} in forex marked by investigators.
The chief justice, Vsevolod Knyazev, was apprehended simply after midnight Tuesday by officers of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, who searched his house and workplace in simultaneous raids and stated they discovered giant sums of U.S. forex. He was ordered to be detained for 60 days, with bail set at $2.9 million, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office stated late Thursday.
Mr. Knyazev has been charged with graft in a public workplace, accused of accepting a bribe of $1.8 million to affect a case in favor of a Ukrainian oligarch, Kostyantyn Zhevago. A prosecutor stated Mr. Knyazev had despatched a message to the lawyer in early May to separate the cash into at the very least 14 separate luggage, and later despatched a message saying he had handed the cash to different judges.
The Anti-Corruption Court’s prosecutor, Oleksandr Omelchenko, informed the court docket that officers raided Mr. Knyazev’s house half an hour after a second tranche was handed over.
Oleh Horestkyi, the lawyer accused of performing for the oligarch, was apprehended with Mr. Knyazev on Tuesday. He was detained for 60 days by the court docket, the particular anti-corruption prosecutor stated in an announcement.
The case has shocked and dismayed members of Ukraine’s judiciary. In interviews, two Supreme Court judges lamented the injury to the status of the court docket and the judiciary. They stated they labored by way of the night time and most of Tuesday to arrange a poll by which 140 of the 142 Supreme Court judges voted to take away Mr. Knyazev from his publish. The two judges spoke on situation of anonymity, due to their place as members of the court docket.
Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com