Odesa Court Acquits Customs Officer of Extortion Charges, Bail Returned

The Malynovskyi District Court of Odesa found an inspector of the customs post at Odesa International Airport, detained in December 2019, not guilty of extortion and bribery.

According to the court 's verdict, the guilt was found to be unproven.

Accordingly, the measure of restraint in the form of bail in the amount of UAH 105.1 thousand imposed on the accused was canceled, and the bail amount was returned to the bailors.

Prosecutors in Odesa region sent to court an indictment against the chief state inspector of one of the Odesa Customs posts, who was suspected of corruption in April 2020.

According to the case file, in October 2019, the inspector allegedly extorted $300 for five bags from a man who had arrived by plane from the Republic of Turkey during customs clearance. In exchange for this money, he promised not to interfere with further baggage clearance. The passenger was forced to agree and then allegedly handed over the money to the customs officer three more times-twice for $200 and once for $300.

The customs officer claimed that he had never taken bribes, and that they had met the victim by chance and that he was drunk. However, the protocols of covert investigative actions confirmed the fact of communication between the defendants, including the circumstances of the customs border crossing. The inspector gave recommendations and instructions on how to cross the customs border. But, in the court's opinion, the content of these conversations does not confirm that the customs officer asked or demanded a bribe or received one. The court drew attention to the extremely poor quality of the recording of the meetings.

In turn, the victim, when questioned in court, stated that it was the first and last time he had ever transported goods for sale from Turkey. Therefore, he did not know how to pay the duty, and the customs officers, while explaining the procedure to him, allegedly offered him to pay $100 per bag. He paid the bribe and immediately went to the police.

According to the court, the victim's behavior aroused reasonable suspicion that the circumstances of the case had not been artificially created by law enforcement officers as a method of combating corruption in the customs authorities.

Кирило Бойко