A judge from the Odesa region reported being pressured over a robbery case

Yulia Shevchuk, a judge of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi City and District Court, reported interference in her work by the mother of the defendant in a robbery case.

This informationappeared on the website of the High Council of Justice.

According to Shevchuk, she has been presiding over the case since January 2026. The defendant’s mother is not a party to the proceedings but attends every hearing. The judge claims that the woman films the hearings on her phone, aggressively expresses her disagreement with the court’s decisions—particularly regarding the extension of her son’s pretrial detention—and has threatened to file complaints with the High Council of Justice.

The report also notes that the defendant’s legal team has filed six motions to recuse the judge. In all cases, the court denied the motions. In addition, the defendant twice appealed the decisions to extend his detention, but the Odesa Court of Appeals upheld these decisions on February 18 and March 24, 2026.

According to information obtained by Judge Shevchuk from open sources, On January 26, 2026, the defendant’s mother gave an investigator from the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Police Department $1,000 to secure a change in her son’s pretrial detention to nighttime house arrest.

On April 8, 2026, the court approved a plea agreement and sentenced the woman under Part 3 of Article 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The judge found that these actions, taken together, were intended to exert pressure to secure a specific decision. She notified the High Council of Justice and the Prosecutor General of the possible interference, attaching the court rulings and the verdict. 

Ірина Глухова