High Anti-Corruption Court Grants ₴ 1.75M Bail to Odesa Judge Zaveriukha

The High Anti-Corruption Court has granted UAH 1.75 million bail to Valentyn Zaveriukha, the former chairman and judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court of Odesa Oblast.

He has been released from the pre-trial detention center , Slovo and Dilo reported, citing its own sources in anti-corruption agencies.

On April 16, the High Anti-Corruption Court took judge Valentyn Zaveriukha of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court of Odesa Oblast into custody because he failed to comply with a previous decision to set a bail of UAH 3 million.

At the end of March, the High Council of Justice granted a motion filed by Oleksandr Klymenko, deputy head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and allowed two judges of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi court in Odesa region to be taken into custody.

They are Valentyn Zaveriukha and Serhiy Savytskyi, who are suspected of organizing a scheme that allowed men to avoid mobilization allegedly because they needed to take care of a child. According to the investigation, it cost 3.5 thousand US dollars. According to preliminary estimates, Valentyn Zaveriukha made 124 such decisions, and Serhiy Savytskyi - 312.

It is also known that in December 2024, the High Council of Justice considered a petition from Valentyn Zaveriukha, a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City District Court of Odesa Oblast. He asked to suspend the disciplinary case against him, citing his mobilization to the Armed Forces.

In January 2024, the SBU, together with the NABU, detained a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Court of Odesa Oblast. According to the investigation, the judge took bribes of $3,500 to make decisions that allowed men of conscription age to avoid mobilization and go abroad.

The scheme has been in place since April 2022. During this time, more than a thousand such decisions were issued. The court fictitiously determined the place of residence of the men's children, which allowed them to receive a deferral from mobilization. The scheme involved court employees, a lawyer, and intermediaries. The lawyer searched for clients and passed on bribes.

Кирило Бойко