Court does not release mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi from pre-trial detention center

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa refused to satisfy the motion of the defense lawyers of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Mayor Vitaliy Grazhdan to change the measure of restraint from custody to house arrest.

According to the court's verdict, the decision to maintain the current measure of restraint was made because the mayor is accused of committing a particularly serious criminal offense, and if a lenient measure of restraint is imposed on him, he may hide from the court, illegally influence the victim and witnesses in the same criminal proceedings, and commit another criminal offense.

That is why the court decided to extend the measure of restraint in the form of detention for 60 days. The court noted that another measure of restraint is not able to ensure the proper behavior of this defendant. In addition, the defendant's defense lawyers did not provide documents that, in the court's opinion, would indicate that new circumstances had emerged to change the defendant's preventive measure to another measure of restraint not related to detention, or to determine the amount of bail, so the defense lawyers' motion was not subject to satisfaction.

In January 2025, the prosecutor's office brought the case against the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi , Vitaliy Grazhdan, to court. He is accused of organizing the extortion of property with threats of violence, which was carried out by a group of people by prior conspiracy.

In December 2024, the Kyiv District Court of Odesa granted the investigator's motion and extended the term of the preventive measure in the form of detention and removal from office for the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Vitaliy Grazhdan. The mayor was detained in July 2024.

It should be noted that this is not the first detention of Vitaliy Grazhdan by the SBU. In October 2022, the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Vitaliy Grazhdan, complained about being beaten by SBU special forces in his office.

At the time, the SBU commented on the incident, saying that the mayor had provoked the fight himself, so law enforcement officers were forced to handcuff him. He was then suspected of hooliganism and violation of the laws and customs of war.

Subsequently, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office opened two proceedings over the incident, but the then head of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office, Serhiy Kostenko, said that the search was part of a case involving possible financial fraud.

Кирило Бойко