“The VAKS investigator partially granted the request of the SAPO prosecutor and applied a preventive measure in the form of detention for a period of two months to a judge of one of the district courts of the Transcarpathian region, suspected of requesting and receiving illegal benefits, in the form of detention for a period of two months – with the alternative payment of UAH 1 million bail.”
The prosecutor's office noted that if the suspect is granted bail, the judge will wear an electronic bracelet.
SAPO published the recording obtained by the investigation. It recorded exactly how the suspect allegedly spoke about the bribe.
“And for some bread?” – he asks, in particular, his interlocutor.
Plus, he says he's “helping people.”
“If it suits me a little, that’s not bad, that’s normal,” the suspect said.
The entry is dated November 8th.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) wrote that the judge was detained while accepting a $1,300 bribe for canceling the seizure of 20 m³ of wood.
The surname of the judge was not indicated in SAPO and NABU. According to the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), the suspect is the judge of the Volovets court of the Transcarpathian region, Alexander Pelikh.
“During the meeting of the High Council of Justice on granting consent to the arrest of the judge, it became known that on December 2, that is, after the revelation of NABU, Pelikh submitted his resignation, and was already mobilized on December 3. I wonder how he passed the military medical commission so quickly, if during the arrest he became so ill that the judge ended up in the hospital?” – they wrote to the Civil Procedure Code.
