High Council of Justice upholds suspension of mobilized judge from Odesa

The High Council of Justice upheld the decision of the First Disciplinary Chamber to bring judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa Ilya Lonskyi to disciplinary responsibility.

According to the Center for Public Investigations, the HCJ made the relevant decision at a meeting.

On January 9, the High Council of Justice granted the petition of the Deputy Prosecutor General - Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko and temporarily suspended judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa Ilya Lonskyi from the administration of justice.

Ilya Lonsky is charged with committing a criminal offense under Part 3 of Article 15, Part 3 of Article 369, Part 2 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely, attempting to provide an unlawful benefit to another judge for making a positive decision in a case of an administrative offense, as well as obtaining part of the unlawful benefit by deceiving a judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, which is punishable by 4 to 8 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. The pre-trial investigation has been completed, the indictment has been sent to court, and the trial is underway.

In July 2024 , the HACC suspended the hearing of the case of Ilya Lonsky, a judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, who is suspected of bribery. The reason was the judge's mobilization to the Armed Forces.

This is not the first similar decision of the HCJ in this case. On August 10, 2023, the High Council of Justice granted consent to detain this judge in custody, on August 14, 2023, temporarily suspended the judge from administering justice, and on September 14, extended the suspension.

In early August 2023, detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau detained Ilya Lonsky, a judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, on suspicion of attempted bribery.

The judge is also suspected of obtaining part of the bribe by deception. As explained by the NABU, this detention was a continuation of the case of a lawyer-deputy of the Kherson District Council, who was detained on June 19, 2023, on suspicion of taking a bribe for promising to influence judges.

By the way, the lawyer's actions were reclassified - if initially he was charged only with an attempt to offer an undue benefit to an official, now they also added suspicion of fraud committed on a large scale or through illegal operations using electronic computers.

Investigators believe that the judge of the Prymorskyi Court of Odesa became a participant in a scheme to extort USD 2 thousand from a military officer.

Кирило Бойко