Chief of Ukraine Supreme Court docket Is Arrested and Accused of Bribery

The chair of Ukraine’s Supreme Court docket was faraway from his submit after being arrested in a bribery investigation, two anti-corruption our bodies stated on Tuesday.

The businesses didn’t establish the chair by identify, however stated it was the Supreme Court docket chief. On Tuesday, Vsevolod Knyazev was dismissed as chief justice after an awesome majority of the courtroom’s judges voted to strip him of the place, based on native information experiences.

The authorities accused the justice of accepting $2.7 million in bribes.

“It is a darkish day within the historical past of the courtroom,” the courtroom’s judges stated in a joint assertion. “We should be worthy and stand up to such a blow.”

The judges added that they’d absolutely cooperate with investigations, and that the courtroom should “act on the precept of self-purification, taking all obligatory measures.”

Mr. Knyazev stays a Supreme Court docket choose; a separate physique, the Excessive Council of Justice, has the facility to take away him, based on Ukrinform, a state information company.

The Nationwide Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine posted pictures on Fb that included piles of American {dollars} stacked on a desk and a settee. The company’s chief, Semen Kryvonos, stated a bribe was paid for ruling in favor of the Finance and Credit score monetary group, which is owned by a outstanding businessman, based on Reuters.

The Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Workplace stated on Telegram that it and the bureau had “caught the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court docket and a lawyer red-handed whereas receiving an unlawful profit.”

Corruption, and Ukraine’s lengthy wrestle in opposition to it, had principally receded within the public’s consideration after the Russian invasion final February, as Ukrainians rallied across the military and authorities at a time of nationwide peril.

However this 12 months, President Volodymyr Zelensky has retrained his concentrate on combating corruption, aimed toward sustaining Ukrainians’ belief within the wartime authorities after a number of officers have been fired in January amid a serious corruption scandal.

And as Ukraine seeks fast-track entry to the European Union, the nation’s incapacity to suppress graft and corruption has involved its Western allies.

Anastasia Kuznietsova and Matt Surman contributed reporting.