Odesa Mayor Dismisses Chief Architect Amid $10,000 Bribery Case

Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov has dismissed Marat Kasimov, First Deputy Director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Odesa City Council, from his post.

This is evidenced by the mayor's order published by the press service of the municipality.

He was also acting director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Odesa City Council - the city's chief architect. The suspension will last until May 3.

The order also states that the mayor took this step to comply with the decision of the investigating judge of the Prymorskyi District Court.

In early March, the acting director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning , Marat Kasimov, was detained in Odesa while receiving a $10,000 bribe.

In February, police detained an official of the architecture and urban planning department of one of the city councils in Odesa region. She demanded a kickback from an entrepreneur for issuing permits for retail food sales in the market. The official was served a notice of suspicion and a measure of restraint was chosen. She faces imprisonment, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, and confiscation of property.

It was also reported that a civil servant organized systematic extortion of small business owners in Odesa. He was detained on the street with the forceful support of a police battalion. He is the head of one of the departments of the Peresypskyi District Administration of the Odesa City Council.

And the Kyiv District Court of Odesa temporarily removed Natalia Krupytsia from her post. She was detained a week before. After that, the court ruled to arrest the chairman, giving her the opportunity to be released on bail in the amount of 9 million 84 thousand hryvnias.

According to activist Serhiy Kolodyazhny, who attended the court session, Mykhailo Shmushkovych, Yulia Chukhalo and Favzi Mamutov were ready to bail the chairman. However, the court rejected the motion filed by the deputies of the Odesa Regional Council.

Кирило Бойко