A bribery case involving the State Emergency Service has been under investigation in Odesa for over four years; the defendants are employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs
In Odesa, two officials from the State Emergency Service who were arrested for bribery in 2022 have still not been brought to justice, despite years of legal proceedings.
This is reported by local media.
The case involves Oleksandr Zhurba, head of the emergency prevention department at the Suvorov District Branch of the State Emergency Service, and inspector Mykola Gavrylenko, who are charged under Part 3 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (receipt of unlawful benefits).
According to the investigation, in November 2021, after inspecting a gas station, Inspector Gavrilenko offered the owner a deal to pay 3,000 UAH quarterly in exchange for no repeat inspections. Subsequently, Zhurba allegedly demanded an additional $400 to “resolve the issue” regarding the inspection results.
The businessman handed over the money, after which, in January 2022, the inspector was detained while receiving another payment.
After the arrest, the case was repeatedly closed and reopened, and the preventive measures were changed. Initially, Gavrilenko was ordered to be held in custody with bail set at nearly 1 million UAH, but he was later transferred to nighttime house arrest.
In 2022, the proceedings were closed due to a “lack of sufficient evidence,” but the prosecutor’s office overturned that decision. Subsequently, the courts repeatedly changed their position regarding the investigation timeline and the grounds for closing the case.
In 2023, the court even ruled to return the seized funds to the defendant, but the appeal overturned that decision.
In 2024, the defense again secured the closure of the proceedings due to the expiration of the pre-trial investigation period, but the Supreme Court partially upheld the prosecutor’s office’s appeal and remanded the case for a new trial.
The case is currently ongoing, with the next hearing scheduled for June 23.
Despite the lengthy proceedings, in their March declarations, the defendants indicated that they continue to work within the State Emergency Service system, and Gavrilenko subsequently appears as an officer of the 26th Separate Regiment of the National Guard.
The case has been ongoing for over four years; the defendants have not been suspended from duty, and the trial has been repeatedly adjourned and resumed, effectively delaying a final decision.
Recently, based on materials from the NABU investigation, a prosecutor from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) filed an indictment with the court against an individual who facilitated the transfer of funds from the owner of the “Finance and Credit” group to the Chief Justice and judges of the Supreme Court. She is charged with acting as an intermediary in the provision of an unlawful benefit.
NABU explainedthe investigation into Olena Zelenska.
The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office stated that it will ask the court to impose a preventive measure in the form of pretrial detention on former Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak, with the alternative of posting bail in the amount of 180 million hryvnias.
Former Head of the President’s Office Andriy Yermak attributes the charges against him to “public pressure on law enforcement agencies” to issue specific procedural decisions regarding him.
