Judge of Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa suspended after being caught on bribery

In Odesa, judge of the Prymorskyi District Court Denys Dontsov was suspended from work until January 2026 after he was detained for taking a bribe together with a lawyer. According to the investigation, they demanded $10,000 for a "necessary" decision in a civil case.

This was reported by the press service of the High Council of Justice.

On November 25, 2025, the High Council of Justice temporarily suspended a judge of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa from administering justice. The suspension will last until January 18, 2026. The decision was made at the request of the Deputy Prosecutor General - Head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko in connection with the prosecution of the judge.

The judge is suspected of incitement to provide an unlawful benefit to an official and other criminal offenses under part four of Article 27 and part three of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. According to the investigation, the actions were committed by a group of people by prior conspiracy. The High Council of Justice took into account the risks to the investigation and the proportionality of the suspension with the principles of judicial independence.

Recently, law enforcement officers of the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau documented the receipt of bribes by an Odesa judge and a lawyer. According to the investigation, they offered the defendant in a civil case to negotiate with the judge to get a ruling in his favor, the cost of the service was $10,000. Part of the money was to be transferred in advance, the rest - before the ruling was made. The judge and the lawyer were detained "red-handed" after receiving the last part of the bribe. Bail was set at UAH 1.2 million for the judge and UAH 514 thousand for the lawyer.

According to media reports, the NABU was previously interested in two judges of the Prymorskyi District Court - Denys Dontsov and Olga Shentseva. Later it turned out that this time it was Judge Dontsov who was under suspicion. Law enforcement officers are checking the involvement of other people in the corruption scheme.

According to the Anti-Corruption Action Center, in 2019, the Public Integrity Council recognized the judge as dishonest, but the then High Qualification Commission of Judges ignored it. After that, he continued to work in court and receive about UAH 1.7 million a year.

The very next day after the outbreak of full-scale war, Dontsov was engaged in the registration of an expensive car. On February 25, 2022, he received a Toyota Land Cruiser worth 1.4 million hryvnias for use. The car was registered in the name of his father-in-law, Viktor Teleganenko, former head of the Kirovohrad Oblast Court of Appeal.

In July, theCenter for Public Investigations also reported that Serhiy Kichmarenko, a judge of the Prymorskyi District Court, was temporarily suspended from administering justice. The complaint alleged that the judge did not respect prosecutors and cited several examples of judicial disrespect.

Анна Бальчінос