Court rules to arrest Deputy Minister Hrymchak, sets US$237,154 bail

Judge of Chernihiv's Desniansky district court Natalia Liamzina has ruled to take Deputy Minister for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Yuriy Hrymchak into custody, setting bail at UAH 6 million ($237,154). The Ukrainian prosecutor's office in its petition requested to take the deputy minister into custody with an alternative of a UAH 12.5 million (US$493,681) bail. At the same time, Hrymchak said in a courtroom he did not have money for such a bail, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Hrymchak and his assistant were detained on Wednesday, August 14, on bribery charges. The two officials allegedly demanded US$1.1 million from a representative of a legal entity for "exercising influence on decision-making by persons authorized to perform state functions." Hrymchak and his assistance were caught red-handed amid receiving part of the sum in the amount of US$480,000, the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) said.

On August 15, Hrymchak and his assistant were notified of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 190 "Fraud Committed on an Especially Large Scale or by an Organized Group" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. "The individuals by deception took possession of other people's property – money in a particularly large amount," the NABU added. The crime under the said article is punishable by imprisonment for a term from five to 12 years with confiscation of property.