Mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi was not released from pre-trial detention center once again

The Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa denied the lawyers of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Mayor Vitalii Hryzhdan's motion to change his preventive measure.

Thus, according to the court's decision, the mayor remains in custody for another 60 days, the Center for Public Investigations reported.

The mayor's defense lawyers requested that the measure of restraint be changed to house arrest and disagreed with the prosecutor's request to remove the accused from the position of mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi.

The last time the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa extended the measure of restraint in the form of detention for Vitaliy Hryzhdan was in August.

In December last year, Kyiv District Court of Odesa granted the investigator's motion and extended the preventive measure in the form of detention and removal from office for the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi , Vitaliy Grazhdan. The mayor was detained in July 2024.

It should be noted that this is not the first detention of Vitaliy Grazhdan by the SBU. In October 2022, the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Vitaliy Grazhdan, complained about being beaten by SBU special forces in his office.

At the time, the SBU commented on the incident, saying that the mayor had provoked the fight himself, so law enforcement officers were forced to handcuff him. He was then suspected of hooliganism and violation of the laws and customs of war.

Subsequently, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office opened two proceedings over the incident, but the then head of the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office, Serhiy Kostenko, said that the search was part of a proceeding into possible financial fraud.

In April 2024, Vitaliy Grazhdan found himself at the epicenter of a scandal involving his beating of a young man. He claimed that the man had threatened to kill the mayor in response to his remarks.

In July 2022, Vitaliy Grazhdan was hospitalized after a fight with the then chairman of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Council, Hryhoriy Melnychenko. Vitaliy Grazhdan said that the conflict arose over real estate.

Кирило Бойко