Odesa Court Extends Detention for Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Mayor Grazhdan

Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa has extended the preventive measure in the form of detention for Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi mayor Vitaliy Grazhdan.

The relevant decision was made by a panel of judges on March 17, Bessarabia INFORM reported.

In January, the prosecutor's office brought the case against the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Vitaliy Grazhdan, to court. He is accused of organizing extortion of property with threats of violence, which was carried out by a group of people by prior conspiracy.

The mayor is currently in custody by court order. Materials on other participants in the crime have been separated into separate proceedings, and their investigation is ongoing.

In December last year, the Kyiv District Court of Odesa granted the investigator's motion and extended the term of the preventive measure in the form of detention and removal from office for the mayor of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi , Vitaliy Hryzhdan. 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, Serhii 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