The Court of Appeals granted bail to a lieutenant colonel in the TSK accused of torture
The Ivano-Frankivsk Court of Appeals denied the prosecutor’s appeal regarding pretrial measures against Anatoliy Chornei, the former deputy head of the Verkhovyna District Military Registration and Enlistment Office and the Joint Staff, and three of his subordinates. They are accused of torturing conscripts.
Currently, two of the defendants have been released on bail and continue to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The other two remain in custody.
Oleg Bohachko, a prosecutor with the Ivano-Frankivsk Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Defense Affairs in the Western Region, filed an appeal against the ruling of the Kosiv District Court dated June 30, 2026. The ruling concerned preventive measures in the form of detention with the possibility of bail, imposed on those accused of torturing conscripts—former Deputy Chief of the Verkhovyna District Military Enlistment and Recruitment Office Anatoliy Chornei and three of his subordinates. Bohachko asked the court to overturn the previous ruling and issue a new one—to impose pretrial detention without bail on the defendants.
According to him, Anatoliy Chornei and Viktor Baiduzha were released on bail in the amount of 399,360 hryvnias and continued their service, while the other two defendants remained in custody.
“In rendering this decision, the court did not even distinguish the role of each defendant in the commission of this criminal offense. This has led to the situation where Lieutenant Colonel Chornei and the squad leader, Sergeant Baiduzha, are free, while their subordinates—two soldiers who were, in fact, carrying out the illegal orders of their superiors—remain in custody,” said Oleg Bohachko.
He called the court’s decision unfair and contrary to the public interest.
“Given that hearings are scheduled once a month or once every two months, the prosecution did not even have the procedural opportunity to file a motion to have them removed from their posts. For example, the defendant Chornei has already been transferred to the 167th Separate Mechanized Brigade, which is stationed in the Rivne region. Baiduzha continues to serve in the Verkhovyna Regional Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support. In the prosecution’s view, this distorts public opinion regarding the effectiveness of the law enforcement system,” said Oleg Bohachko.
The defendants’ attorneys opposed granting the prosecutor’s appeal, insisting on the legality of the trial court’s decision. They argued that throughout the entire pretrial investigation, the defendants did not evade the investigation and made no attempts to flee.
“As for the prosecutor’s assessment that two of the defendants are currently at large while their subordinates are in pretrial detention, this is, at the very least, incorrect. We are in a criminal proceeding; we are not reviewing the chain of command among military personnel. Both the defendants who are in pretrial detention and those who are currently out on bail share the same procedural status as defendants in criminal proceedings,” said Vasyl Kuz, Anatoliy Chornei’s attorney.
Following the hearing, the appellate court dismissed the prosecutor’s appeal and upheld the decision of the court of first instance.
This was reported by Suspilne Ivano-Frankivsk.
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