High Anti-Corruption Court Orders Witness for Odesa Deputy's Bribery Case

The High Anti-Corruption Court has ruled to forcibly bring a witness in the case of Anatoliy Khmilkivskyi, a deputy of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Council of Odesa Oblast, who is accused of inciting a businessman to give a bribe.

This was reported in the publication Slovo i Dilo.

It was noted that the prosecutor of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office requested that the witness appear in court, as he failed to appear without a valid reason.

According to the ruling, NABU detectives must bring the witness to the hearing scheduled for 12:30 a.m. on March 13, 2025. Control over the implementation of this decision is entrusted to the SAPO prosecutors.

It is also known that the HACC extended the term of night house arrest for Anatoliy Khmilkivsky, who remains under investigation in a corruption case.

The MP is accused of inciting a businessman to bribery and will now remain under house arrest until October 13. Accordingly, the term of his procedural obligations has been extended: to arrive at every request; not to leave Odesa region without permission; to report changes in his place of residence and place of work; to refrain from communicating with witnesses in this criminal proceeding and to deposit his passports.

In general, the MP has been under house arrest since April. In March, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that a deputy of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Council had been detained for bribery. According to law enforcement officials, he offered to help an entrepreneur get land near the village of Molodizhne for a bribe.

Of course, the prosecutor's office did not name the deputy at the time, but the editors of Anti-Corruption Dimension found out that the deputy in question was Anatoliy Khmilkivsky of the For the Future political party.

In the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Council, he headed the Standing Committee on Land Relations and Administrative and Territorial Organization. In addition, he worked as the director of the municipal enterprise "Housing and Communal Services of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Council". He was removed from this position by an investigating judge of the Kyiv District Court of Odesa. However, he was later reinstated by the Odesa Court of Appeal.

The deputy himself claimed that he did not take bribes, and that he earned the money he was detained for handing over by providing business advice.

Ірина Глухова