Former Odesa Official Sentenced to 2.5 Years for Bribery in Mobilization Scheme

Kominternivsky District Court of Odesa Region, located in the village of Dobroslav, sentenced the former deputy head of the Fontansky village council, Petro Shchyrba, to two years and six months in prison.

According to the court' s verdict, he was found guilty of taking a bribe to influence other officials.

According to the investigation, at the end of July 2023, he promised his friend help in obtaining a document declaring him unfit for military service, which in turn would help him avoid mobilization. For this purpose, the deputy head of the village council promised to influence officials of the relevant territorial centers for recruitment and social support and doctors of the military medical commission.

Later, in August of the same year, he received $4,000 from the client for his influence, and later received another $800, which he was supposed to give to the military and doctors for their services.

At the court hearing, the defendant stated that he did not plead guilty to the crime and received the money as a debt payment from an acquaintance to whom he had leased tractors in 2019. The friend owed him $12,000 for this lease. After the Russian invasion began, the acquaintance allegedly asked Petro Shchyrba several times to get him a job and said that he did not have the appropriate military registration documents, but the official, according to him, could not help him because he did not have the appropriate connections.

In March 2024, the defendant was diagnosed with a serious illness and needed to undergo surgery, so he asked his friend to repay the debt, and the latter said he would think about what could be done. The day before his arrest, the friend said that he could pay back the defendant $800. As for the $4,000, he said he had not taken it.

Instead, the acquaintance, who was a witness at the trial, said that he complained to Petro Shchyrba about his fear of going to war, and that he himself later called him and offered him many options, including getting a "white ticket," i.e., being removed from the military register, or being declared partially unfit, or getting a deferral every six months. The defendant then told the witness to give him 4 thousand dollars to resolve the issue of mobilization and received it, after which he gave the witness a phone number and said that this was a person who would help him and asked him to write to the number, not to call. The witness asked how he would avoid mobilization, and the defendant said that he would have to do what he said.

At the end of April 2024, the witness received a summons to appear before the TCC at one of the checkpoints. The witness asked and called the accused about the fact that he had received a summons to the checkpoint, to which the latter said that the person with whom the witness corresponded and who was supposed to help had disappeared and he could return his money, i.e. 4 thousand dollars, to which the witness refused, as he wanted to resolve his issue - evasion of mobilization.

Eventually, the witness became suspicious that he was being deceived and turned to law enforcement. On June 27, 2024, Petro Shchyrba was detained.

Кирило Бойко