Kyiv's Court of Appeals have taken a decision extending the detention of Ihor Zvarych, the former head of Lviv Administrative Appeals Court, until December 10, 2009.
The court took the decision on Friday, satisfying a petition submitted by the plaintiff, and extended the period of Zvarych’s remanding in custody to nine months, an Interfax-Ukraine reporter said.
“The court of appeals decided to satisfy a petition submitted by the senior investigator on especially important cases, and extend the period of defendant Ihor Zvarych being remanded in custody to nine months,” Judge Stanislav Kravchenko said while announcing the decision.
On December 3, 2008, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case on the suspicion that Zvarych had taken a $100,000 bribe. The next day, the offices and apartments of Zvarych and another seven judges of the court were searched. Some $1 million and over UAH 300,000 were discovered at Zvarych’s home. After the search, Zvarych went into hospital and later disappeared.
Zvarych was dismissed as head of the Lviv Administrative Court of Appeals on December 12, and on December 15, he was put on the wanted list. Zvarych was arrested in Lviv on March 9, 2009. At the moment of his arrest, he was in the attic of the house in which his mother-in-law lived. The judge is suspected of having committed crime foreseen by Articles 364 (abuse of office), 369 (bribe taking), and 190 (fraud).
